


The Marauders: The Haunting of Shrieking Shack

by lexyvey



Series: The Marauders: Until the Very End [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1970s, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Diagon Alley, Full Moon, Gryffindor, Gryffindor Common Room, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Rivalry, Gryffindors Being Gryffindors, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts First Year, Hogwarts Great Hall, Hogwarts House Sorting, Hogwarts House Sorting Ceremony, Hogwarts Letters, Hufflepuff, King's Cross Station (Harry Potter), Magic, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Muggle/Wizard Relations, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, POV James Potter, POV Lily Evans Potter, POV Remus Lupin, POV Severus Snape, POV Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew is a Marauder, Platform 9 3/4, Ravenclaw, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, Shrieking Shack, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, Slytherin, Spinner's End (Harry Potter), The Great Lake | The Black Lake (Harry Potter), The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, The Sorting Hat, The Whomping Willow (Harry Potter), Transfiguration (Harry Potter), Werewolf Remus Lupin, Wizarding World (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 23:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29497983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexyvey/pseuds/lexyvey
Summary: BOOK ONE OF 'THE MARAUDERS: UNTIL THE VERY END' SERIESThe summers (1970 and 1971) leading up to their first year at HogwartsYear One (1971-1972) of the Marauders Time at HogwartsGoes along with Cannon for the most partThe story of how the Marauders meet and become friendsPlaylist on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4xPpAxA74qkIURBdpWdOPm?si=a10698063ad349ea
Relationships: Marauders & Lily Evans Potter, Marauders & Severus Snape, Marlene McKinnon & James Potter, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Series: The Marauders: Until the Very End [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2166747
Kudos: 9





	1. Life on Spinner's End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus Snape's POV on the Summer of 1970 having just introduced himself to Lily Evans and her sister Petunia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picks up directly after the memory in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The Prince's Tale." Snape had just confronted the Evans girls for the first time telling Lily she was a witch and calling Petunia a muggle. Both of them leave the playground offended as Severus walks back home in defeat.

Severus was left standing alone at the playground watching the two girls glare as they walked away. He wanted this to go very differently. Any other way would have been better than this. He didn’t mean to insult the redhead. He’d been waiting to make the perfect introduction, building up confidence before he approached the girl. He only wanted to be her friend. So much for that.

He began walking home kicking the rocks on the side of the road along the way. He should have known better than to approach the girl when she was with her sister. He knew she was cruel. He remembers when Petunia’s friends made fun of him one day after school. How a couple of them who he didn’t know, like Petunia, joined in to make a mockery of him. He was nearing home when a car drove by and doused him with the water from the puddle as the wheels drove over it. Typical.

There he was standing outside of his home. The closer he neared the door, the louder the shouting got. He remembered then why he avoided being there all the time, but since he was here, he opened the door to his mother’s shouting. She wasn’t yelling at him though. She didn’t even notice him opening the door as he entered. Let alone when he left this morning. But then again, it’s hard to hear him when she’s too busy drowning out all noise with either the alcohol and cigarettes or the screaming matches she and father both participated in. Tonight, it was both.

He walked towards the kitchen trying his best to ignore not only his parents, but his stomach as well. He looked at the table. There was a a grocery bag lying on it. He peaked a look to see only more bottles. He sighed and turned his attention towards the cabinets instead. He imagined when he opened them that spiders would crawl out and leave only the cobwebs of the unused kitchen space, but it was worth a shot. And there it was: a half-eaten pack of Digestives and a pack of cigarettes - also half-open. He grabbed the digestives and started snacking on the biscuits before searching through the rest of the cabinets and drawers. At first, it was for something else to eat, then it was for some money so he could get himself food.

Then his parents both stormed out of the living room, mother to their bedroom and father through the front entrance. Both of them slamming doors. He decided then to check the living room for some money. There it was on the table underneath an ashtray. He approached it when he heard the front door open and his father walking towards him. Shit. He decided to make a break for it and grabbed the money. He was quickly reaching to find his pocket when his father grabbed hold of his wrist and held it up with the money.

“Do not steal from me, boy.”

He held Severus’ wrist tight and slowly increased his strength. His breath smelled of alcohol and his father was pissed. Not that Severus expected different, but he hated the stench of it. His father glared into his eyes as his other hand reached to pluck the money out of Severus’ hand.

“Thank you” he slurred before pushing Severus’ hand away and pushing Severus as a whole out of the way when his mother opened the bedroom door shouting again telling Tobias to get his hands off her son. It’s not that she cared about him getting hurt, she just wanted another go at her husband. Once they were too distracted with each other, Severus decided to make a break for it and slipped out of the room. He decided to leave. It’s not like he had anywhere to go, but anywhere was better than home.

He couldn’t wait for his Hogwarts letter to come. When he was younger his mother used to tell him all about it. He didn’t even know if it was even real but he wished it was. It was one of the few pleasant memories he had of his mother, and he wanted a way to escape this place. But he knew it was too good to be true. It was probably nothing more than a story and he’d just spend the rest of his life here on Spinner’s End.

But maybe, he didn’t have to. Maybe it would happen. Maybe he’d get the letter. Maybe he’d be able to leave and never come back. Maybe he could make up with the Evans girl. Maybe they could be friends. And maybe he’d live a long happy life in a world of magic.

He mindlessly walked around the streets until the sun had long been set and wound up back at home. He slipped inside to see his pissed father lying on the couch with a cigarette smoking in his hand and his mother passed out beside him and made way for his bedroom.

He laid on his bed and pulled the covers over him when he heard his stomach rumble. He never did get food. He laughed at the thought of that. It wasn’t really funny, but for some reason, he laughed because that just marked another day in the life on Spinner’s End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. This is my first time writing a story so bear with me. Feel free to comment ways for me to improve in later chapters. Next chapter will be centered around Lily Evans.


	2. The Red-Haired Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily Evan's POV on the Summer of 1970 a month after her first encounter with Severus Snape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picks up A few weeks after the memory in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The Prince's Tale." Snape had just confronted the Evans girls for the first time telling Lily she was a witch and calling Petunia a muggle.  
> References to the second memory in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The Prince's Tale" where Lily and Severus are sitting facing each other under a thicket of trees as Lily asks Severus about the Wizarding world and if Hogwarts is real. Also during this memory Petunia is hit with a fallen tree branch accidentally after upsetting the two of them. This occurs between scenes 3 and 4.
> 
> Also note that italicized words are written words and words inside 'single quotation marks' are thoughts.

It had only been a few weeks before she broke. A witch? Nobody ever called her that before. Nobody ever calls anyone that. He said he didn’t mean it as an insult. Did he mean it? Does he know about all the things she can do? Can he do them too? He did call himself a wizard. It would make sense.

She remembered her sister saying Spinner’s End. Her parents wouldn’t approve of her going there to ask him about what he said so instead she walked over to the park and wrote a message in chalk. Maybe he’d see and they could talk. She bent down and began writing her message.

_3:00 Snape_

_I’d like to talk_

She glanced at it before deciding it might come off a little too harsh and he seemed shy. She didn’t want to push him away, so she drew a smiley face beside it. She ended up having fun with it, adding a beard and a pointy hat to it before pushing herself up off the cement, dusting the chalk off her, and skipping back home until 3:00, when she’d come back and hopefully the stringy boy would be there waiting to talk as well.

As 3:00 neared, Lily made to leave home again for the day.

“Where are you headed?” Petunia questioned as she took a sip of juice from her glass.

“I’m supposed to meet up with a friend. Can you tell mum and dad I’ll be home by dinner?”

Petunia eyed her sister curiously, “a friend?”

Lily nodded.

“who? Do I know them?”

“Yea. You don’t quite like them though, or else I’d invite you to come along.”

This time Petunia was the one left nodding. Lily smiled and waved goodbye which Petunia reciprocated though her smile wasn’t at bright. She walked towards the door to leave.

As Lily walked over to the Park, she ran through what she was going to say to the boy when she saw him. What should she ask first?

‘his name would be a good way to start. But then after that?’ she thought.

She had so many things to ask the boy. What did you mean when you called me a witch and yourself a wizard? How long had you been watching me? Why? What does muggle mean? The more she thought, the more questions came to her mind. Before she knew it she was back at the park. She looked around for the curtain-haired boy but didn’t see him.

Maybe he just wasn’t here yet. She decided to sit beside her message she drew earlier in the day. She knew that there was a chance he wouldn’t show, but she hoped. She looked around to see if the boy was close by, before deciding to play with her hands in her lap.

She saw a shadow approach her when she looked up to see the boy getting ready to tap her on the shoulder to alert her of his presence. He waved as she said hi.

“You got my message,” she smiled.

The boy nodded. He was still tense. Maybe he was scared she’d leave.

“I’m Lily,” the redhead revealed as she continued to smile.

“Severus,” the boy said quietly. He must have been shy.

“I’m not mad about the other week. Mean, I am a little bit I guess, but my curiosity got the best of me, so I just had to talk.”

Severus looked down for a second before looking back at the girl. He soon caught some of Lily’s infectious smile and began to return it.

“I didn’t mean to offend you. But, uh – ask away. What do you want to know?”

Lily’s smile grew, “Where do I start?”

* * *

Ever since the two had made up after their poor first impressions, they quickly became inseparable. Both of them were always leaving home to spend time with the other. Although Lily’s sister refused to acknowledge it for what it was, she was quite jealous of this mysterious new friend of Lily’s.

Lily made to leave one morning after breakfast telling her family she was off to meet a friend. Her father kissed her on the forehead saying goodbye while her mum told her to be back by lunch because they’re going to have a family picnic. Lily nodded and headed to the door as Petunia followed behind her to ask who it was Lily was meeting with all the time now.

“I’m just going to visit the boy from the playground. You’re free to join, but I don’t remember you two getting along much.” She didn’t mean to be harsh about it but she had to admit it came off a bit that way.

“Fine have fun with grease-head.”

Lily just shook her head and turned around to leave. She wasn’t going to fight Petunia. When they first met, they all got off on the wrong foot and Petunia wasn’t one to change her mind after a first impression, so she just left it. It wasn’t like Severus ever mentioned wanting to reconcile with her sister anyway.

She headed over to the thicket of trees the two had been meeting at the last few times and listened to all the things Severus had to say about the wizarding world they were both soon to officially be a part of. She wanted to absorb all she could from the boy’s extensive knowledge. She’d come back every time in her thoughts, thinking about all Severus told her. The school they’d be leaving from. All of it. Sometimes she would be in the middle of talking to the boy as her thoughts trailed off. She didn’t mean to be rude, but she couldn’t help it. It’s not like he seemed to mind, he must have had his fair share of daydreaming about the place called Hogwarts.

* * *

When she came back from meeting with the boy, she told Petunia all about the letter she’d receive and how they’d invite her to go to a magic school where she’d be with other people like her and Sev. Lily was so excited.

“Sev? You’re using nicknames now? Lily, he’s not worth your time. He’s probably either lying to you or too delusional to notice that he’s lying to you. There’s no magic school in the UK. If there was everyone would know about it. He’s just lying to you and getting your hope up for nothing.” She patted the redhead’s hair comforting her after breaking the news to her. “Sorry, Lil.”

Lily shook her head though, “no, no it’s not. Watch, I’ll get my letter next summer, and Sev and I will head off to Hogwarts. It’ll happen you’ll see.”

The next time she met up with Sev, she’d make sure he wasn’t lying to her. She believed him of course, but Petunia had a point. Why hadn’t she heard of it already then?

* * *

He did it. He had just hurt her sister. _Her sister_. He dropped a tree branch on her. How could he? Maybe it was an accident? He talked about accidental magic all the time, but he seemed to be in far more control than for that to be an accident. Besides, he didn’t like Petunia. He called her a muggle that one time.

She didn’t want to think the boy to be bad, but after what just happened she needed time to think before talking to him again. They’ll makeup, she was almost certain of it, but right now she was feeling hot-headed and unforgiving. She could tell that right after the branch hit he looked slightly scared. Maybe he meant to do what he did, and not at the same time. He wanted Petunia to leave them alone, but she doubted Sev would ever try to hurt Petunia even if they don’t get along.

* * *

It wasn’t long before the two had made up again. They spent the rest of the summer side-by-side, and once school started again, they met up afterward. Since they spent so much time together, Sev even came to dinner some nights and the two played and talked in Lily’s room until the sunset and Sev would have to go home.

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you, Sev,” Lily spoke as she walked her best friend out of the house waving to him in the front yard as he walked away backward waving back to the red-haired girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably won't be much more from Severus or Lily's POV for a while, it'll switch to more of the marauders POV after this chapter.


	3. Werewolf in Sheep's Clothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus Lupin's POV of March 1971 as well as summer 1971. Remus looks forward to the day he'll receive his Hogwarts letter.

His father told him not to get his hopes up. But the stories he heard sounded too magical, and amazing to not. He wanted that. He wanted it so badly. Every night he’d go to bed hoping to dream of the place his father called Hogwarts. And when he’d wake in the morning, he’d beg his father to tell him more. If this was as close he was ever going to get to the school, then he’d take any and every moment he could.

His mother and father both loved their son. Remus knew that, and they knew he knew that, but it still crushed them when Remus would get so excited about a place he’d never get to see in person. It wasn’t like it was Remus’ fault. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was his father who pissed off one of the biggest werewolves of the century. His father, Lyall, blames himself for that night. He was never able to look at his son the same way after the attack. He could only see his son as sick or a hazard around others, no matter how hard he tried to see him as his son, and only his son. He never meant for his son to pay the price for his actions, but Remus did.

It was cold outside, seeing as how it was almost March, but the other kids didn’t mind. Remus watched out the window as they played. They were all smiling and happy. Remus watched them play yearning to live that kind of life. The kind where he’d have friends and he could play with them. A life where he wasn’t a danger to others, but that would never happen. Maybe that’s why he loved the thought of attending Hogwarts. Because then, he could be a wizard and he could have friends.

Although Lyall couldn’t go back and change what happened that night, he did try everything he could to help Remus. No, he couldn’t give Remus the life he knew the boy wanted, but he could try to give him a good one none-the-less. Remus might want to go to Hogwarts to study magic, but he could never. That’s why when Remus turned 11, Lyall would take him to Diagon Alley. Remus would get his first want and Lyall would teach his son magic as best he could. He’d do whatever he could to see a smile on his son’s face because every time he closed his eyes all he saw was his son in pain.

* * *

It was early March and Remus was reading on the windowsill. The neighborhood kids had just headed in for dinner, but Remus didn’t feel like leaving the view quite yet. He opened the book his father had brought home from the small book shop across town after coming home from work. It was a good read, but Remus couldn’t help but tune in to the muffled sounds of a conversation in the kitchen where his mum and dad were talking. Quickly Remus was able to focus on the noise and make out what they were saying.

“A couple of the neighbors are growing suspicious,” His mother spoke. Remus could hear the sigh his father made as he ran his hand over his face in defeat. “I don’t know how close they are, but it might be best…” she trailed off before finishing. Remus knew what she was talking about though.

His family moved around a lot and often. They couldn’t risk somebody discovering Remus’ secret, so whenever people started picking up on what was going on, they’d have to leave. It made things hard on his parents. He wished it didn’t, but it did. His family didn’t have a lot of things, but the things they did have were almost always kept in boxes. It’s not like they needed to ever unpack anything though since it was never long before they’d move again. His family never stayed in one spot for very long, and that’s just the way it was. Remus tries to remember how long their record for staying had been since that night, but it was never more than about six months before they’d leave.

* * *

It was now the week before his birthday. Remus woke up every morning at the crack of dawn. He knew he couldn’t go, but since he learned that the letter to Hogwarts was delivered shortly before a wizard or witch’s eleventh birthday, he hoped – no he _willed_ – for his letter to be sitting in the mail when he walked into the kitchen for breakfast. Every morning he walked in, leaving his heart to break a bit more each day when he didn’t see the letter with the Hogwarts seal his father described. And before he knew it, it was his birthday.

Remus moved sluggishly around the house to the couch with his blanket wrapped around his head and a bowl of cereal he barely had the appetite for, but still managed to choke down. He could blame it on the full moon approaching tomorrow, but he knew that it was because of a lousy owl that never showed up. His mother and father watched him lying on the couch for a good while before Lyall made a move to join the boy. He patted his son on the leg to get his attention before telling him the news in the hope of raising the boy’s spirits.

“Hey, Re. I know you’re upset about Hogwarts. I do wish you could go, but –” he was cut off by Remus who finished his thought.

“I’d just be putting others in danger. Yea, I know. I’m not sad though. It just means I don’t have to leave you guys anytime soon.” He forced a smile. He knew his father would see right through it but gave it a shot anyway.

His mother then came to join her boys on the couch telling Lyall to scoot over so that she could sit by her son. They all three talked and smiled and laughed. At first, it was half-hearted, but soon it became real. That is until Hogwarts pushed back into the boy’s head. He wasn’t upset as much anymore though, but he had to ask, “Dad, can you tell me another story?”

Lyall sighed but then nodded, and soon enough Remus was listening wide-eyed to his father as he talked about his favorite subject back when he was in school: Defense Against the Dark Arts or DADA for short. He told Remus about Boggarts and how he became so fascinated with them that he pursued a career in Non-Human Spirituous Apparitions at the Ministry of Magic. Although Lyall left it out, Remus remembered that his father had used to be a world-renowned authority on the subject. His father continued to tell him his story, before eventually taking a tangent, telling how it was how he and Hope, Remus’ mother, had met.

“Bleh! Keep the smoochie smoochie out of it. Please and thank you.” Remus smiled as he said this throwing a pillow at his father. Lyall grabbed a pillow of his own in retaliation though and before Remus knew it he was in a Pillow fight. It didn’t take too long before his mum joined in on the fun. They both teamed up against his father. They were winning of course.

Shortly after their pillow fight, Remus grew exhausted and had to sit down. The full moon was starting to take effect. His mum and da both sat beside him to comfort him as he gained his strength again.

“We never ended up giving you your birthday present this morning,” his mother said as she eyed Lyall who nodded as he reached into his back pocket to pull out a piece of parchment.

“Ah – well it looks as though the pillow fight might have bent it up a bit, but it’ll work.” Lyall handed his son the parchment which Remus reached out to grab.

Remus unfolded the parchment to see a map that appeared to be of Diagon Alley. There were little post-its on certain shops with notes written. Remus looked up confused and excited at the same time to see both of his parents smiling widely at him.

“What is it?” the boy asked.

“That,” he pointed to the parchment, “Is Diagon Alley. Now, I know you can’t go to Hogwarts come the fall, but I don’t see any reason why I can’t teach you a few things myself. We can head over to Olivander’s next weekend and pick you up a wand, before heading to some of the other shops. Now, I put some notes as to what each place is and what’s inside on the post-its. I thought you might want to plan it out as to where all we visit.”

Immediately after his father said he’d teach Remus, he couldn’t stop smiling. Remus was grinning from ear to ear. He couldn’t believe it. He was headed to the biggest wizard street in the UK with his father next weekend. He’d get his very own wand.

Hope was laughing at the grin on her son’s face when he was told the news. He was so happy. Remus hadn’t smiled this brightly in forever. His smile melted her heart in a second. She was so happy for Remus. She wanted him to smile like this forever, and it almost felt like he did, because, throughout the rest of the day, Remus wouldn’t stop smiling until the moment he fell asleep.

* * *

Noon the next day came and Remus and his dad were lying in the living room underneath the blankets and pillows they had used to make a fort. Remus was exhausted and sore, the full moon being that night, but he and his dad were laughing none-the-less, while his mother stood in the kitchen getting ready to start lunch for the three of them. It was then that they heard the doorbell ring.

The air tensed immediately. Lyall left the fort grabbing his wand as he made way for the door. He told Hope to stay in the kitchen and for her to take Remus. She nodded and Remus followed, but as his father approached the door to answer he watched anyways. There was a hard knock on the door this time causing Remus to jump before heading into the kitchen as his father made for the door handle pulling it open. Remus’s heart thumped loudly in his chest, but he forced himself to calm down.

It was only a second later when he heard his father’s muffled voice in shock.

“Professor Dumbledore? Please come in. What brings you here?”

He heard a set of footsteps as they made their way inside the threshold of the door.

“What a lovely fort, Lyall,” the unfamiliar voice spoke pausing for a moment before continuing, “I have a letter to deliver that must have gotten lost on its way here.”

Remus knew not to show himself before his father said it was safe to come out, but when he heard those words, he couldn’t help to peek his head around the doorframe to see the old wizard with twinkling eyes. The elder wizard quickly noticed Remus and smiled towards him. Dumbledore bent down as he extended the letter to Remus as the boy hesitantly yet excitedly approached the man.

“I believe this was meant for you.”

Remus couldn’t help but slowly smile back towards the wizard as he took hold of the letter. He ran his hand over the Hogwarts seal he imagined so many times before losing his restraint and tore the letter open all excited. He was about to read it when a thought dawned on him and his smile faltered as he turned to the old wizard asking, “What about the other kids? It’s not safe. I can’t be around them.”

Dumbledore’s face softened as he grabbed hold of the boy’s shoulder to tell him that everything is being handled and that he must not worry. Remus was so happy at that moment that he hugged the man, who was left a bit shocked for a second before happily returning the gesture.

* * *

It was his mother who invited Dumbledore to stay for lunch. The man did not hesitate to accept, knowing it wasn’t as much for the food as confirming Remus and other’s safety at the school. While waiting for lunch to be prepared, Dumbledore was invited to play a game of gobstones with Remus. Dumbledore and the young boy played as Remus asked question after question about Dumbledore and Hogwarts until lunch finally came around.

After lunch ended, Lyall approached Dumbledore. The two went outside on the porch to discuss matters while Remus reread his letter over and over in his hands. Lyall expressed to the older wizard his concerns about if people were to learn of his son’s condition.

“Mr. Lupin, I completely agree that for Remus’s own sake his condition should not be broadcast. Once a month, Remus will leave for a secure and comfortable house in the village of Hogsmeade, guarded by many spells and reached only by an underground passage from the Hogwarts grounds, where he can transform in peace.”

“Thank you, Professor. I’m glad that Remus gets to be safe and happy inside the walls of Hogwarts, but what if someone discovers the truth about him? You can’t force them to stay quiet. And what with all the prejudice it will be near impossible to keep a tight lid on. If his condition were to get out, it wouldn’t just mean Remus would have to go home, but the ministry won’t take too kindly towards you accepting an unregistered werewolf in your school either. Parents will be furious to learn and you might lose your position. I love my son, I really do, but is it worth it?”

“I assure you, Mr. Lupin, that won’t be happening, but if by the rare chance it does then I’ll handle it. And yes, it is worth it. Remus deserves to get his chance in life.”

Dumbledore smiled at Lyall before making to leave.

“Tell Hope I said thank you for lunch and Remus that I’m excited to see what he does. Stay safe, all three of you tonight.”

“Will do. Have a good night professor.”

* * *

The next weekend came soon after Dumbledore’s visit, Remus was jumping off the walls, excited as could be. They were headed to London today for Diagon Alley. Remus would get his school shopping done today. He would get his wand, his first cauldron, and pair of dragonhide gloves, he’d see other wizards his age too. Maybe he’d meet some of his future schoolmates. Oh, he was so excited.

In his bedroom above his desk lied a bulletin board filled from top to bottom. There was his Hogwarts acceptance letter, his school supplies list, and the map of Diagon Alley his father gifted him on his birthday. Since his birthday, Remus added notes of his own on the map. He had the whole trip planned out. They’d get his wand and the rest of his school supplies, visit both of the bookstores, then grab a couple of sweets at Sugarplum’s Sweet Shop, before heading home. He couldn’t wait to leave.

He heard a knocking on the other side of his bedroom door. His father asking if he was ready. Remus flung the door open with a grin stretching from ear to ear making Lyall smile back laughing at his son’s excitement. He remembered how excited he was when he was Remus’ age, and the memory made him smile. The two of them made to exit through the house out the front door. Remus was almost floating on air as he went to grab onto his father’s forearm in their front yard as they apparated to London.

After they arrived, Remus was still floating on air. He ignored the tugging on his insides he felt a second ago as he soaked in the sights before him. They were in some restaurant or tavern, pub, or something when he caught sight of his first wizard as a mug of yellow substance, he’d soon learn to be called butterbeer floated across the room to the wizard’s hand effortlessly. He thought it to be crowded inside the leaky cauldron until he stepped out alongside his father into the huge current of wizards and wizards. There were so many people. Too many.

And that was when he and his father were pulled away from each other by the mass body of people weaving around them, driving the two apart. For a second Remus found himself forgetting to breathe as he struggled for breath. His father was by his side just a second ago, but now he couldn’t see where he was.

‘focus Remus.’ He thought to himself, ‘just focus. Deep breaths.’

Remus slowly inhaled before exhaling as his breathing begun to level out. He caught the scent of something familiar among the mass of people. He began moving towards it before hearing the voice which typically accompanied said smell shouting his name.

He did it. He found his father. Now they could leave. Except they didn’t. Instead, Remus held on tightly to the back of his father’s robes as they made their way into one of the bookstores Remus was so excited to visit: Flourish and Blotts.

“Perhaps we should have gone over a few things before coming, but now’s just as good as any time to tell you I guess,” Lyall said as he began to explain a couple of ways to help Remus deal with crowds for when he heads off to school.

After getting Remus a new book for the train ride as well as a wand and his school supplies, the two of them stopped to get some ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. They had bonded as Lyall told Remus what all to expect at Hogwarts: the moving staircases and trick steps, the portraits, and the ghosts, etc. Eventually, the conversation switched along the way to reminders for Remus. About how he should enjoy himself, but not draw attention. Be friendly but not make friends because it would pose a danger to his secret. Overall, Remus was to blend in and not draw too much attention to himself, or else he’d have to leave. The more he thought about it the more he felt like he was an imposter living in the wizarding world. Like he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or more appropriately a werewolf in sheep’s clothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a slight diversion from the official information on Pottermore. According to Pottermore, Remus gets his acceptance letter shortly before his birthday not the day after. Also, according to Pottermore, Lyall and Hope tried to block Dumbledore's entrance to their home when he first appears unannounced on their doorstep, but somehow, five minutes later, Dumbledore was sitting at the fireside, eating crumpets and playing Gobstones with Remus. That obviously didn't happen in this chapter though because I felt it didn't fit as well to the story.


	4. The Potter Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius and his brother have one more adventure before Sirius leaved for Hogwarts Next week. On September first, students say goodbye to their families before boarding the Hogwarts Express heading to school. Sirius meets Lily, James, and Severus on the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to the third memory in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The Prince's Tale" where Severus overhears Lily saying goodbyes to her family and getting into a fight with her sister Petunia. As well as his first interaction with James and Sirius. Sirius reveals that "he'd like to break the tradition." Lily and Severus decide to switch cars when Sirius insults him. Severus is also called "Snivellus" for the first time when James tries to trip him. This occurs between scenes 3 and 4, as well as between scenes 4 and 5.

Sirius Black washed his hands before making his way to dinner. He addressed both his parents, bowing his head before he sat down across from his younger brother Regulus. They smiled at each other. Sirius set his napkin down on his lap and waited for his mother to announce they could begin eating.

Sirius lifted his fork to his mouth once everyone else had begun to dig into their food. The table was silent focusing on eating before his father decided to start a conversation.

“Sirius, are you excited to leave next week for school?”

Sirius swallowed before answering with a nod.

“Yes, father. I cannot wait to study at Hogwarts and see Cissy again.”

Sirius wasn’t lying. He was excited for all the things he’d learn at the school, and he really did miss seeing his cousins, since this summer his cousins have been keeping their distance from his family. Probably has something with Andie and the way she hangs around with the muggle-born friend of hers all the time. When his mother caught word of it she and her brother, Sirius’ uncle Cygnus, got into a heated discussion. He hadn’t seen any of his cousins ever since.

Dinner dragged on until Sirius and his brother were finally excused from the table. The two walked side by side as they headed to Sirius’ room to finish packing. Once they arrived Sirius laid his trunk on his bed as he threw things in talking all excitedly about all the amazing things he’ll get to do at Hogwarts.

“And Uncle Alphard told me that there are secret passages all over the school. I can’t wait to find them all and then tell him all about the new ones I find. It’s going to be so fun!”

“You’re so lucky, you get to get away from all the boring dinners and the awful muggle neighbors. What am I going to do without you here? I’ll be so lonely. Who else am I going to fight with? Who’s going to kick me under the table at dinner as hard as they can without drawing attention? You’re going to have so much fun at Hogwarts, and I’ll be trapped here smothered by our mother and picked on by the neighbors. Father will probably have me couped up in the library all day. There’s no one else here to have fun with. There’s Kreacher, but he’s not a friend.”

Sirius laughed at his brother saying, “oh, come on, Reggie. Kreacher is a _ton_ of fun too –” but before he could finish Regulus was whacking his brother upside the head with the shirt Sirius had just packed. “Hey!” he tried to pout but just wound up laughing instead. Sirius chased his little brother around the room and then down the stairs before his mother caught them.

“Boys, No running in the halls!” she shouted at them.

They hung their head in guilt as they replied in sync, “sorry, mother.” Then they decided to walk back to Sirius’ bedroom and hopped on the bed as the both laid down on their backs.

“I can’t wait for my letter to come so I can come to join you next year and then we can be in Slytherin together.”

“Me neither. Once you get there we can sneak around together and chase each other in the halls. We’ll meet up after classes and play games and eat all the things we’re not allowed to when we’re at home. We’ll have so much fun.”

“Yea. You’ll have to write me every week, or at least every other week. I want to know everything. All the people you get to know, your favorite classes, and when you find a new secret passage, all of it. Not the stuff you’d write to mother and father, the fun stuff. Promise?”

Sirius smiled at his brother.

“Promise.”

Sirius and Regulus then decided to sit up and finish the last bit of packing Sirius had. Regulus grabbed a couple of the wadded shirts in the trunk already and folded them before placing them back in as Sirius collected the last of his things around the bedroom.

Once they completed it Sirius suggested that they go play their favorite game: muggle watching. Although neither of the two liked muggles, for personal reasons more than family beliefs, they did find their world quite intriguing. They’d go out to the muggle shops and look at all the weird things inside to make the muggles’ mundane lives easier as if it wasn’t already simple enough. But none-the-less it was fascinating looking around and seeing everything. The metal machines on wheels as they zipped around the busy streets, the muggle moving pictures with sound which they called movies. It was all so cool. It was hard to think that such awful people could create such impressive things, all of which without magic.

Sirius and his brother went over to the chest in the corner with clothes they had “accidentally” shoplifted a couple of visits ago, but in all fairness, the muggles had taken far more from wizards than Sirius ever did from their shop. And he did pay for everything, just with a different form of currency than they were familiar with.

The two brothers had gathered enough about the muggle world to know that robes weren’t seen as acceptable clothing to change before heading out. And if you thought about it, changing clothes was actually a better thing for the wizarding world as well since according to the Statute of Secrecy, wizards were to dress in muggle clothes when interacting with their world. If you thought about it, Sirius didn’t do anything wrong. It was all justified. Of course, he could just leave the muggle world alone, to begin with, but where’s the fun in that?

They decided to sneak out the front, tiptoeing their way to the foyer before making a break for it and racing the other out of their stuffy house across the street by the crosswalk.

“I won. I won, and _you_ lost,” Sirius sang as he waved a finger in his brother’s direction pushing him in the chest laughing.

“Of course, I lost. The second I started to gain on you and take the lead you pulled me down by the back of my shirt. Then ran backward as you laughed in my face watching me hit the pavement, you prat.” Regulus was sour he lost but couldn’t help but laugh at his brother’s antics. He’d miss them when Sirius left.

“Hey, you know the deal. Whatever it takes to win and –”

“We always play to win. Yea, yea. I know how it works. You’re still a git though,” Regulus finished with a sigh but continued to smile at his brother.

“I thought I was a prat?”

“Prat, git, same difference. You still suck.”

“Oi!” Sirius grabbed his chest where his heart lied as dramatically as possible, “I have been wounded. My heart is in pain, a kind that the best healers can never fix. Your words sting mightily. Aah!” She fell to his knees collapsing on the pavement as Regulus stood over him laughing before playfully pushing his brother down.

“Oh, come on, get up Sirius,” Regulus laughed.

Sirius laughed and pushed himself up while Regulus shook his head smiling as Sirius continued to be dramatic, making a show of how “painful” it was to get up with his broken heart. The two of them walked around the streets visiting all the little quaint muggle places until they decided it was time to head back. They didn’t want to be caught by their parents anyway. Who knows how they’d react? Their kids both missing for hours finally returning home in muggle clothing. They’d kill Regulus and him, then bring them back to do it again. Luckily their parents hadn’t noticed their absence when they snuck back in. Either that, or they chose to ignore it, but the latter is doubtful.

* * *

It was September 1st, 1971 when Peter Pettigrew got ready for his first day at Hogwarts. He was nervous. He was scared, but he was even more excited. He stood in front of his bedroom mirror practicing his introductions so he could make the perfect first impression. First impressions were crucial to making friends, and Peter wasn’t about to be lonely his whole time at Hogwarts. He practiced until he was confident enough, he wouldn’t get tongue-tied when he finally had to introduce himself to the other kids he’d be going to school with.

Peter took one last look in the mirror before he would head out the door. He adjusted his shirt collar and the part in his hair as his mother enters the room.

“Don’t be nervous. They’ll all love you. They’d be stupid not to, so don’t worry. You’re gonna make all sorts of lifetime friends and when you come home they’ll be all you talk about. I can already see it.”

“Thanks, mum.”

* * *

When Sirius and his family approached Platform 9¾. Sirius couldn’t be more excited, but there was that pulling in his stomach as well beginning to surface. He was nervous. He ran through the brick wall in awe of all the wizards and their families they were all saying goodbye to. His family followed behind as they pulled over to an empty region of the platform to say goodbyes.

Regulus had been acting strange all morning, but Sirius didn’t blame him. He was just as hesitant to leave his brother as his brother was to see him go. Sirius just had to keep reminding himself that it was only a couple of months and then he’d be back for Christmas, and it wasn’t like they weren’t going to write. They promised and neither of them ever broke a promise.

The goodbyes were hard. He gave a long hard hug to his brother before they finally pulled away.

“You better not forget about me while you’re gone.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

After that, it was all a blur with his mother holding his shoulder as his father told him to make them proud. Sirius nodded his head and made his way to the train with his trunk. He approached the doors of the train, took a deep breath, and then hopped aboard to find an empty car.

He opened the door to the first available car he saw and entered. He lifted his trunk to put it over his head on the shelf above to store it on the train ride. He forgot just how heavy it was. He was exhausted so he sunk into the seat and began to fiddle with his thumbs.

* * *

It wasn’t too long before he heard somebody else open the door. She had long dark red hair and glassy eyes like she was on the break of crying at any moment. Her voice hitched for a second before she managed to ask,

“Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all,” he said as he tried to give a sympathetic smile.

She forced a bit of one on her face as she said thank you. Then a tear fell down her cheek. She hurried to try to clean it when Sirius spoke again.

“Don’t worry, it’s ok to cry. I think most people are crying or will by the end of the night. It’s hard saying goodbye to family.”

“Thanks. I uh – got into a fight with my sister. Not really how I thought saying my goodbyes would go.” She tried to make humor of it still clearly feeling guilty about shedding tears of the boy she hadn’t even got the name of yet.

“I’m sorry. Is there something I can do to…” he trailed off at the girl shaking her hear no, but at least she was smiling, so he smiled back.

“No, no. I’m good. I just needed a second. I’m Lily.”

“I’m Sirius.”

“No, so am I. I’m ok. But thanks.”

“No,” he laughed, “I mean my name – it’s Sirius, Sirius Black,” he told her as he reached out a hand for her to shake.

“Oh,” she laughed in return, “Sorry. Well, it’s nice to meet you, Sirius.” She extended her arm out to shake the boy’s hand. He had a good grip, unlike the girl who seemed she hadn’t shaken people’s hands before.

Sirius helped the girl stash her trunk away on the shelf then they talked for a bit longer before another person appeared at the car door.

“Got room for another?” The boy with a mess of black unruly hair asked.

Both Sirius and Lily nodded their head before the boy entered. He immediately stuck out his hand for the two to shake.

“Thanks, I’m James Potter.”

It didn’t take long for the extremely extroverted boy in round glasses to annoy Lily but also end up getting along with Sirius simultaneously. When the greasy-haired boy named Snape entered the car, things only went downhill after that.

* * *

Lily and tugged the greasy-haired boy out of the car after that leaving just Sirius and James together.

“Snivellus?” Sirius laughed, “Oh that’s awful.”

“In my defense, he really shouldn’t have insulted my future Hogwarts house,” The boy continued to laugh.

The two of them talked and bonded the whole train ride together, they got snacks at the trolley and played games, wizard and muggle ones. Sirius taught James the art of thumb wrestling which he and his little brother used to do all the time at home after watching a couple of kids play it on the local playground one day.

Sirius felt a bit bad for the girl he was sitting with earlier. He didn’t mean to offend her, but that boy she was friends with didn’t exactly seem like a good guy to him. But then again, why should he have cared? She obviously wasn’t a pureblood, unlike the Potter boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will focus on Remus again, and we'll see more of Peter and be introduced to a few more characters.


	5. Welcome to Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus' journey to Hogwarts as he boards the Hogwarts Express looking for a place to sit, and makes three new friends. Sirius meets James's childhood friend. Remus tries his best to blend in and not draw attention, but that's a lot easier said than done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I feel this chapter and the next are when the actual story starts to take place. The previous ones feeling more like a prologue.

Remus Lupin walked the middle of the train trying to decide which car to join. This was it. This would be the beginning of the rest of his life. He was going to make the most of it. He found a car with a short blonde-haired boy who appeared lonely looking out the window towards the families they were all leaving. Remus knocked on the door.

“Can I sit here?” he asked. The blonde-haired boy eagerly nodded his head as to say yes. Remus smiled and the boy smiled back.

“I – uh, I’m – I’m Peter.” He said as he extended his hand out to Remus.

“Remus. Nice to meet you, Peter.”

The two boys sat and chatted for a while, but eventually, they both ran out of conversation started and wound up sitting in silence. Not that either of them seemed to mind. It was a comfortable silence. Remus decided to open his book and he read. It had been a good while since leaving King’s Cross and Remus was starting to get snacky. He dug in his pocket for the chocolate bar he had begun eating on the way to the station. Shortly after though, Remus heard laughter accompanied by footsteps approaching.

He tried not to pay them any notice until he heard his and Peter’s car door open.

“Mind if we join you guys? We kind of got kicked out of our last car.” A girl with medium length curly brown hair and green eyes asked. There was a boy to her right with short black hair, darker skin, and a bright smile as he kicked the brunette’s shin.

“Well, they clearly won’t want us joining them now, you numbskull.” He smiled before turning his attention back towards Remus and Peter. “I swear we didn’t do anything bad like she makes it seem. The other two in our car fell asleep and we didn’t want to wake them up, so we got up and left. Little did we know that as we made way to leave, _clumsy_ over here, would end up tripping on air and waking them anyways.”

The girl shoved the boy playfully, “Hey! That’s not fair. you cut me off on the way out,” she laughed.

The boy merely rolled his eyes smiling as he introduced himself, “Anyways, I’m Benjy, and that’s Riley. Can we?” he gestured to the empty seats and Remus invited them in happily.

“Yes, yea. Come in. I’m Remus and he’s Peter. You guys first years too?” he asked.

“Yep.” Riley supplied.

“You guys want a piece?” Remus asked as he held out his chocolate bar. All three of them eagerly accepted the offer and thanked Remus. “No problem.”

The four talked and laughed. It wasn’t long before Riley brought up her and Benjy’s betting game they had been playing before joining the two boys.

“Ok, what about Remus here? What are we thinking?” Riley looked to Benjy as he stroked an imaginary beard and hummed to himself as he thought about it. Benjy eyed the book Remus had set down upon the boys’ arrival before answering Riley.

“I think he’ll be a Ravenclaw.”

“No way. Remember when we first came, and he offered us chocolate. He’s _clearly_ a Hufflepuff. Also, he’s reading a muggle book, which either means he’s muggle-born or tolerant of others. He’s a Hufflepuff through and through,” Riley argued. Remus was quite intrigued by the way the two analyzed his actions after having only spent a short amount of time with them, while Peter just watched their interactions mesmerized by the boy and girl in front of him, both of which just oozed confidence.

“Ok, but did you catch how he was reading the book when we first arrived. He was extremely focused on the material, meaning he has a thirst for knowledge. I’m so confident he’ll be a Ravenclaw, I’ll bet you two sickles even, Riley.” Benjy extends his right hand, which Riley gladly shakes.

“Deal.”

That was when the trolley witch stopped by. Benjy and Peter both left to go get snacks and when they came back Benjy handed Remus a chocolate frog.

“As thanks for letting us all finish off your chocolate bar from earlier.”

Remus smiled as he accepted the box it was in thanking his new friend.

It wasn’t much longer before Benjy pulled a deck of exploding snap cards out of his pocket and asked if anyone wanted to play. Everyone eagerly joins in on the fun. They chatted and laughed the rest of the train ride until the prefects came by their car telling them all to get changed since they were almost to Hogwarts.

* * *

When the train stopped and everyone filed out with their trunks, James heard a voice with a thick West Country accent shouting, “Firs’-years! Firs’-years! Firs’-years over here!” He looked towards Sirius who shrugged before the two of them headed over.

Along the way, James caught sight of one of his best friends.

“Marlene!” he shouted, “Marlene!” James waved his hands in the air as he shouted trying to get the girl’s attention. When it proved to not work James looked over to Sirius, “Come on,” he told the Black boy as they lifted their trunks and ran over to the girl James was desperate to get the attention of. Sirius followed behind James, having no clue whose attention they were trying to get since there were so many girls around that could have been named Marlene and Sirius didn’t know which one actually had been.

Marlene turned around soon enough though at the sound of James’s voice.

“James!” She dropped her trunk and went right over to the two boys meeting them halfway. “I looked back, and you weren’t there. I thought you were just playing jokes on me, but then I asked Mathew and he said you got swept up in the current of people. I wanted to look for you, but there was just so much happening, and I didn’t want to get lost from both you and my family so I just went and I’m –” That was when her rambling was cut off by James who dropped his trunk to place a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Marlene, it’s fine. It’s nothing to get worked up about. I got a bit distracted and veered off. Sorry to worry you, but look,” the boy patted himself on the chest then moved down to the rest of his body ending at the shins, “I’m fine. See?”

“Yea ok, so who’s the pretty boy?”

Sirius’ eyes jerked up at this, shocked while Marlene just winked at him. James on the other hand faked shock as he explained to the girl,

“Marls! You know me, I’m James, your honorary brother since we were in nappies.”

She just rolled her eyes at this and flicked him on the forehead before telling James,

“Oh please, you know who I was meaning,” she turned her attention to Sirius at this point ignoring James as she introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Marlene. I apologize in advance for any further encounters you have with James. He’s not quite house trained yet. We were still working on it before he le – ow!” This time it was James who decided to flick the girl. Sirius was smiling at the two of them.

“She’s just joking,” he explained to Sirius before looking towards Marlene again, “aren’t you Marls?”

“Oh totally!” she told Sirius which satisfied him. James turned away back towards Sirius, but when Sirius looked over James's shoulder Marlene was silently laughing as she shook her head and mouthed the words “no, definitely not.” Sirius laughed causing James to look back over towards the girl.

“Marlene! What were you doing? Huh?” he asked as he attacked the girl tickling her ribs as she flailed.

“Run, pretty boy! Run! Now’s you’re chance! Save yourself!” she yelled dramatically in-between laughing fits as James tickled her to the ground.

Sirius didn’t run though, instead, he watched the two of them laughing and smiling himself, before deciding to join in on the tickling, and Marlene and he teamed up against James.

With two people against James, he was quickly tapping out on the ground surrendering,

“Ok, ok, is surrender!”

Marlene and Sirius got off James shortly after. Marlene held her hand up and Sirius high-fived her.

“I like you, pretty boy. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to survive a friendship with James after all.”

“You know he has a name, right?” James asked as he brushed the dirt off his new robes and stood up smiling at both his old and new friend.

“Yea, but pretty boy’s starting to grow on me, you know?”

James rolled his eyes, while Sirius stuck his right hand out.

“I’m Sirius Black, but you’re free to call me whatever compliments you feel.”

“Good to know,” Marlene said as she shook the boy’s hand.

“C’mon, you three! Over here!” The giant groundskeeper shouted towards them.

“Oops,” James said as Marlene, Sirius, and he all hastily grabbed their trunks running over to the main group laughing at each other on their way over.

* * *

They followed the groundskeeper down the narrow path. They were stumbling about in the back of the group. It seemed as though they were the only ones making noise as they took turns trying to scare each other in the dark and then laughing at each other’s reactions.

Hagrid soon called over his shoulder to the group, “jus’ round this bend here.”

Everyone looked in awe as the path opened onto the edge of a great black lake with the Hogwarts castle perched atop the tall mountain on the other side of the body of water.

* * *

Remus looked up at the castle. It looked so beautiful. Almost everyone in their group was frozen just gazing at the place they’d be spending their next seven years at.

“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid told them as he pointed to a little fleet of boats sitting in the water by the shoreline. Remus, Peter, Benjy, and Riley all decided to sit together again for the boat ride, while James, Marlene, and Sirius went in a separate boat together.

Hagrid asked if everyone was ready before ordering for the boats to take on through the lake. Each boat moved in sync gliding across the lake. Most people were silent and left to their thoughts as they traveled across the river.

James, Marlene, and Sirius were silenced completely after coming to see the lake, but Remus’ group finally worked up another conversation.

“So, what are you guys most excited for this year?” Benjy asked.

Riley told them how she couldn’t wait to go watch the quidditch games, while Remus told of how excited he was to make friends. The group lightly teased him for getting sappy for a second before Benjy asked Peter what he was excited for.

“Honestly, right now, I’m just excited to finally get to eat an actual meal after that long train ride.” Everyone nodded to that before falling silent once more.

They were about halfway across the lake before any of the four decided to speak again. Benjy was looking right up towards the night sky.

“The sky looks so beautiful right here. You can see so many of the constellations. look.” Benjy told the others as he pointed them out one by one to the others.

Remus watched as Benjy told the story behind one of them when he leaned back too far and fell out of the boat and into the black lake. It didn’t help when he felt something wrap around his left leg pulling him further from the water’s surface.

The other three in the boat laughed when Remus fell over the side until they noticed that Remus hadn’t surfaced yet. Quickly they each searched around the boat to find any sign of the boy.

Remus was underneath the water struggling to breathe as he drowned in the lake. It was then that his body went into a fight-or-flight mode and the wolf inside him made an appearance. Remus’ eyes shot open as they turned into a shining dark color. His body gave all he could as he tried his hardest to push himself back to the lake’s surface.

Riley was the one to spot Remus’ fingers as they approached the water’s surface but not quite making it. Riley ran over towards the boy and reached down to grab him before calling for Benjy and Peter to help hoist Remus up. The boat was heavily leaning to the one side, and they all thought it about to tip over when whatever had hold of Remus let go and he flew back to the surface. The three helped Remus back in the boat and settled him in a seat.

“Are you ok?” Remus heard Peter ask.

Remus sat on the seat shivering with his eyes forced shut. He refused to open them until he felt the wolf stand down, but once he did, he opened them and assured Peter that he was now.

Benjy, having noticed how visibly shaken Remus was tried to lighten the mood a bit.

“Geez, Remus. How much do you weigh? Almost had the boat tip over for a good second,” he laughed. Remus laughed in response nodding his head before he decided to explain what happened, omitting the part about his werewolf instincts taking over.

“I’ve got to say, you sure do have a good grip, Remus. When I grabbed onto your hand you were pulling _really_ hard,” Riley told the werewolf.

Remus laughed at this too, but now he was starting to feel a bit self-conscious. He didn’t mean to pull hard or anything. He eyed Riley’s hand and sure enough, it was bright red. Remus was lucky that it was so dark or else it’d be too easy for others to notice. But Remus knew, Riley’s hand was going to bruise. So much for not drawing too much attention to himself.

Hagrid then shouted for everyone to duck down as the boats all came upon a cliff. Before they knew it, they were being taken down a tunnel running underneath the castle where they docked the boats at the underground harbour.

They each exited the boat before walking up to the meeting point where they were to wait for Professor McGonagall to start the sorting ceremony. This was it. This was everything he dreamed about and he was finally here. Remus smiled at the thought while the boys he arrived with took up another bet as to which house the redheaded girl on the outskirts of the group was going to be placed in. They did the same thing with the boy she stood beside as well.

It wasn’t long before the doors swung open and Professor McGonagall appeared introducing herself to the students. She took them over to a small chamber off the hall as she gave her speech by saying, “Welcome to Hogwarts.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was heavily influenced by the events that happen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: "The Journey From Platform Nine and Three Quarters" and "The Sorting Hat." I wanted to keep some of the parallels between Harry's Journey and the one the marauder's took.  
> Hope you enjoyed it though.


	6. Nobody Would Notice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sorting Hat Ceremony begins and the students are placed into their new houses for the next seven years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to fourth memory in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The Prince's Tale" where The sorting hat places Lily in Gryffindor. She looks back at Severus with sad smile, and avoids Sirius at the table when he makes room for her. The rest of the marauders get sorted before Severus gets placed in Slytherin, sitting down at the table with Prefect Lucius Malfoy who pats him on the back.This occurs during the second scene.  
> This scene like the last one was heavily influenced by the events which occur in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: "The Sorting Hat" as to make for some parallels between the Harry Potter books as well as the Marauders' journey at Hogwarts during their first year.

Sirius, James, and Marlene stood crammed into the small chamber with all the other students as Professor McGonagall told them to wait for a few minutes as she went to check if the great hall was ready.

“How do they plan to sort us?” Sirius heard a boy with dark brown hair ask Marlene as she stood beside him.

“I’m not sure. When I asked my older brother, he mentioned something about battling a troll, but I’m pretty sure he was just joking. Doubt Matt would last five seconds with a troll if that was the case,” she laughed. The boy looked scared out of his mind when she mentioned the troll but weakly laughed at the joke Marlene made about it.

“I heard we take a test,” another boy chimed in. He was soaking wet and looked a tad bit cold, “but I’m not sure what all that entails.”

“A test?” the dark brown hair boy panicked, “and what happens if we fail?”

“Hey don’t worry. I’ve never heard of someone failing a test and being kicked out of Hogwarts before and I have 3 older brothers,” she tried to tell the boy in hopes of calming him.

James turned to the wet boy, “You’re soaked!”

“really? I hadn’t noticed,” the sarcastic boy said as he looked down at his robes before shrugging and looking back towards James and smiled, “huh, it appears so.”

“He fell in the lake on the way,” a third boy chimed in. He was a bit shorter than everyone else and had blonde hair.

“Well before I left, my dad taught me a drying spell, I can try it out if you’d like. Doubt you’d want to be in soggy robes the rest of the night,” James informed the boy who nodded his head.

“Yea, that’d be great. I’m Remus.”

“James,” he told the boy before he flicked his wand towards him and muttered some incantation. Immediately afterward the boy looked down at his robes in shock. He was completely dry.

“You’re going to have to teach me that,” Remus said as he smiled down at himself.

A girl and a boy who was standing beside Remus began shoving each other at that which Sirius heard one mention something along the lines of “you might as well pay up now, Riley.” And the other saying, “in your dreams, Fenwick.”

Professor McGonagall returned the chamber not long after that and told everyone to form a line and follow her. Sirius stood behind James who followed Marlene as they walked through a pair of double doors and into the great hall.

There were thousands of candles all floating in midair overtop of four long tables which stretched the length of the hall. There were shiny golden plates and goblets at each where the other Hogwarts students sat. At the end of the hall was another table that ran perpendicular to the first four. It was raised on higher ground, and teachers filled it up instead of students. When Sirius looked up to the ceiling he saw, not another piece of architecture but a night sky with stars much like outside.

Professor McGonagall continued to lead the students up to the front of the hall as everyone who was already inside watched before the group of first years halted. Professor McGonagall sat a four-legged wooden stool in the center of the hall and placed an old worn-down hat atop of it. It was a leathery brown color, and the brim of it was as large as the seat it had laid upon.

Everyone eyed the hat, curious as to what the supposed “test” would be. What would involve a hat anyways? Before Sirius knew it the hat began to sing a song to its new audience as well as the school’s returning students. It told them what the four houses of Hogwarts were as well as how the hat would be the one to decide where they’d all wind up for the next seven years. When it finished the whole hall broke into applause as the hat fell silent once more.

McGonagall then stepped forwards and faced the first years with a long scroll in her hands.

“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Aubrey, Bertram!"

The boy jumped up at the sound of his name while the professor gestured for him to come up and sit on the stool. He did so, and she placed the sorting hat on the boy’s head. The boy jumped again though nothing seemed to happen yet. It wasn’t long before the hat spoke again, shouting his decision to the boy and the rest of the people in the great hall.

“RAVENCLAW!”

The second table from the left clapped and shouted. Professor McGonagall simply waved her hand as to say for the boy to join them. He smiled as he made his way to the table before sitting down.

“Black, Sirius!”

Here it was. It was now that Sirius would wear the grimy old hat as it shouted Slytherin as it had to every other member of his family for years. The second table from the right clapped and cheered his name. The Slytherin table Sirius noted as he spotted the familiar green on their robes as well as his cousin Narcissa who sat beside a boy with almost white, blonde hair. He walked over to the stool as McGonagall laid the hat on Sirius’ head. He heard the hat hum in his ear, causing Sirius to tense.

“Hmm,” the hat began, “You’re not what I had expected. Not like the many Blacks before you I had decided the fate of. Hmm,” it said again, “You have talent. I see and a nice thirst to prove yourself, much like the others before you. You’d do well in Slytherin but you’ve far too much courage to excel, I think it better be GRYFFINDOR!” The hat shouted its final judgment to the rest of the great hall.

Instead of the applause that Aubrey, Bertram was given the whole hall stood silent in shock. Sirius refused to move up from the stool. He was frozen in place. Did the hat just say Gryffindor? Sirius was going to be sick.

Then a ton of whispering broke out.

“A Black in Gryffindor?”

“That’s impossible.”

“There must be a mistake.”

“Never has a Black been in Gryffindor,” he heard another say.

Sirius looked over to the Professor scared and weak in the knees as he got up from the stool. She nodded her head and motioned for him to leave towards the table in red on the far left. Sirius made his way over with his head down walking slowly to his new fellow Gryffindors. The entire hall watched him as Sirius sat on the end as far away from all others. He couldn’t believe it. Gryffindor? He knew on the train he said he’d like to break tradition, but he only half meant it. He said it to impress the Potter boy who he had enjoyed the company of. He didn’t think it would happen though. What would his parents think? Sirius, their son, heir to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, in a house filled with everything his family was against: blood-traitors, halfbreeds, and mudbloods. There was no way he’d be making his father proud now. The hat continued to go through student’s names, but Sirius hardly noticed over the sound of the thoughts in his head spinning out of control.

* * *

Remus watched the sorting ceremony as it went on. He heard as Professor McGonagall called name after name, and the hat as it announced which table they would go to. When the hat announced Gryffindor for the second boy, he watched as the hall went silent. He watched the boy himself as he sat frozen on the stool which the professor had to nudge him to sat up off of. He heard as the murmurs and whispers began while the boy walked over to the table clad in bright red as he walked with his head down. He heard the names that followed as well.

He heard as Amelia Bones was placed in Ravenclaw and Mia Crestfield in Gryffindor before he heard a name that piqued his interest.

“Cummings, Riley” Professor McGonagall read off her scroll.

The girl took a deep breath then began walking as she turned back to Benjy, Peter, and him saying,

“Wish me luck.”

Remus crossed his finger for her as she went over to the stool. When the hat announced her as a Hufflepuff, he watched as one of the ghosts in the great hall took a victory lap in honor of the new student joining his house. The next name on the list was read out loud.

“Evans, Lily.”

A girl with dark red hair and a face full of freckles jumped at the sound of her name, before approaching the sorting hat on trembling legs. It had barely been a second before the sorting hat shouted its decision.

“GRYFFINDOR!”

Lily got up off the stool smiling as she made her way to the table, and when she came up to the Black boy, he scooted over to make room for her. She stuck her nose in the air at this though.

‘Rude,’ Remus thought.

* * *

A few more names were called before another caught Remus’ attention.

“Fenwick, Benjy”

“Here we go,” Benjy told the last two of them before he made his way over to the hat. His hands were shaking, and the boy was nervous, even though he tried his best to seem confident. When the hat spoke its decision for Ravenclaw, Benji walked happily over to the table second from the left which was decked in dark blue and bronze, but he did look back and smile at Remus and Peter once he sat down.

Names continued to be called one by one until finally,

“Lupin, Remus,” was called by none other than Professor McGonagall as she looked up from her scroll. Now it was Remus’ turn to tremble as he approached the hat, and he did just that.

“Ah, a werewolf. I’ve never sorted one of you before,” the sorting hat began. Remus immediately tensed looking around to see if anybody heard, “Don’t worry. Nobody can hear except you.” Remus relaxed a bit at that as the hat continued to buzz in his ear, “now where shall I put you? Not Slytherin, you lack the ambition, but the other three are much harder to choose from. Hufflepuff would be tolerant if they were to learn, but it’d be no place for you to excel over the years. You’d never reach your full potential there. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor would do you well, and you’d excel at both though. Coming to Hogwarts with your condition is quite the risk, though isn’t it? Not only to confront your worst fear every month but to leave home as well. You are certainly too brave to be a Ravenclaw. Therefore, you ought to be in GRYFFINDOR!” the hat shouted.

The table all clapped and cheered as Remus made his way over to the table. He considered joining the mass of people but instead chose to sit beside the boy with dark black hair who sat alone. He felt bad. Not only did he not get sorted into the right house, but he didn’t have any friends in Gryffindor by the looks of it either.

Remus decided he’d try to cheer the boy up though.

“This seat empty?”

“Not at all, please,” the boy spoke as he made room for Remus, “I’m Sirius,” he stuck out his right hand.

“Remus,” he said as he went to shake it. Both of them had a firm grip.

* * *

It wasn’t long before Remus noticed that Sirius wasn’t left without friends in Gryffindor. A young girl their age with curly blonde hair and a bright smile named Marlene joined them both shortly after Remus sat. She made jokes and had them both smiling and laughing soon after taking a seat.

Then the boy Remus had befriended on the train, Peter joined them, and right after him only seconds later, a boy with unruly brown hair and round glasses came slapping Sirius on the back and waving to Remus. The five of them watched the rest of the sorting ceremony, though getting distracted every few minutes and pulled into a new conversation.

The last two names, Remus watched as they were placed. Emmeline Vance to Hufflepuff and Emma Vanity whom the hat quickly shouted Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and put the stool with the sorting hat away as Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster, had gotten to his feet. He smiled down at all of the students, before giving a speech to which everyone listened wide-eyed before Dumbledore ended with a thank you. He sat back down and when everyone looked back over the table, there were now plates piled with food.

There was roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and peppermint humbugs. Remus’ stomach growled. They all piled the food onto their plates and began to eat. It was delicious, every bit of it. He had to pace himself when eating though because even though he could eat a lot faster than the others beside him, he tried his best not to have people pick up on all the things that make him different.

“Potatoes, James?” Marlene asked with a wicked grin on her face to the boy on her left. She had a spoon with potatoes on it facing the boy. James was too busy plowing his face with food to notice, thinking she was going to hand the bowl of them to him, but that was not the case.

“Yes, plea –” James began when Marlene flicked her spoon at the boy making the potatoes splatter all across his face. He sat there with his mouth wide open in shock before running a finger over them and licking it, “mmm, delicious,” he told her, “How kind of you to share, allow me to do the same for you.” He set his fork down and grabbed the gravy boat looking back at the girl with a devilish look in his eyes. Marlene sucked in a breath and hastily stood from her seat and began backing away.

“No! James Potter, don’t you dare!” she backed herself too far at this point and bumped into the red-haired girl. James set the boat down though.

“Ok, ok. Come back, now would you?” he told her.

Marlene stuck her tongue out at him instead. Then out of nowhere a pearly-white and slightly transparent poltergeist steamed from out of the table knocking over the gravy plate into James’s lap. He jumped as the gravy-soaked his lap. Everyone stared at the figure shocked and scared a bit as it cackled at where James stood covered in Gravy.

“Welcome to Hogwarts, first years!” he shouted before disappearing in plain sight. Before they knew it one by one down the table goblets of pumpkin juice exploded like Geysers. Everyone shouted in panic as the being was heard laughing.

It wasn’t long before a ghost approached them.

“I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower. Sorry about all that,” he waved a hand to James and the mess of goblets across Gryffindor table, “Peeves can be quite the handful. Always making trouble, that one. Won’t listen to anyone either except Dumbledore and the Bloody Baron – he’s the Slytherin ghost,” The five of them all looked over to see the ghost with blank starring eyes and gaunt face sitting at the Slytherin table in robes with silver blooded stained upon them.

“what’s that silver stuff he’s covered in?” James asked

“Blood.” Everyone sucked in a breath at this.

“How’d it get it all over him?” Peter asked softly and hesitantly. He was starting to get a bit uncomfortable at the sight of the ghost.

“Don’t know. I never asked.” After a short uncomfortable silence, the ghost cleared his throat before continuing, “Right, well, I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year?”

They all nodded, and Sir Nicholas smiled before taking off. As he took off, the goblets of spilled pumpkin juice and the plates of dinner food, faded away, leaving the tables clean before desserts appeared. There was ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs, and jam doughnuts, trifles, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding, and so many more treats.

James and Remus both went for a treacle tart, while Peter grabbed a jam doughnut, and Sirius and Marlene stuck to the strawberries. James sat back down carefully in his spot looking down at his lap.

“Oh, what? Your _drying spell_ won’t work on that?” Marlene teased him laughing before throwing the calyx part of the strawberry at James after she ate it.

“Oh, shut it,” he laughed.

Remus looked around the hall then back at his new friends. This was going to be a good year. He could feel it. He would have fun, learn magic, and keep his secret from everyone.

His secret.

Remus looked over to Riley Cummings, and sure enough, she was eyeing her right hand. She flexed her fingers before grimacing at the pain and closing her hand again. That wasn’t going to make things easy on either of them. Riley lifted her head and turned in the direction of Gryffindor's table looking for Remus. Before Riley caught Remus’ eye, the werewolf looked away and back towards the group he was eating with. They were laughing at something, but all Remus could think was how fucked he would be. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before his secret would be discovered, and he would be sent back home.

 _No_.

Remus wouldn’t let that happen. He’d simply avoid the girl until he could come up with an excuse for what happened. If or when Riley asked about what happened, Remus would be prepared.

If there was one thing Remus knew for certain, it was that nobody would know his secret. He could do it. It was only one night a month, and if he blended in enough as his father told him to, nobody would notice.


	7. Lumos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius Black POV of the aftermath of the sorting ceremony.  
> Remus Lupin POV of his meeting with Dumbledore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter like the last couple was influenced by Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: "The Sorting Hat" where the first years are taken up to the Gryffindor tower, taught the password, and meet their dorm-mates.

Sirius listened as the headmaster gave a speech to the first years before dismissing them off to bed. Dumbledore told them how the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students, and how no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. They went on to tell how quidditch trials will be held the second week of term and that anyone interesting in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. James's eyes perked up at this statement. He must love quidditch, too bad first years never make the team.

“Finally, I must tell you that this year, our school has been chosen to house a rare tree known as the whomping willow. Professor Sprout helped to plant it over the summer. Everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death would have it in their best interests to avoid getting too close to this tree, however curious you may be.” Sirius didn’t understand how a tree could be dangerous to get close to. It’d be a different thing to touch since the leaves or trunk of it may be poisonous, but to just be near it? Sirius didn’t understand. “And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!” and with that, he gave his wand a flick and a long ribbon flew out the tip which rose high above the tables and formed words. He told everyone to pick a tune and sing while the headmaster conducted. After the song concluded Dumbledore sent everyone off for bed.

Sirius and the other Gryffindor first years followed Billius Weasley, the Gryffindor prefect, out of the great hall. They all trotted up the marble staircase after the marble staircase sluggish and exhausted. Sirius would occasionally hear some of the other first years as they made animal noises. They were of a sheep, baaing. Sirius soon began to pick up what was going on though. The baaing was at him. They were baaing at him. He knew not many people, including him, were taking his housing well, but he didn’t think this would occur. Nevertheless, Sirius continued walking with his head held high as he walked up more staircases, but that didn’t stop the other first years

“Look at him, a Black sheep!” one boy said as others around joined in laughing.

“He’s a black sheep, but he still walks around pretending he’s better than the rest of us, just like his family,” a second boy told. Sirius overheard James getting aggerated at this though. Sirius doesn’t know why, but the boy was quick to defend Sirius.

“Oh, come off it, would you? Is this really how you want to start the next _seven years_? Pissing off your housemates? That’s low,” he told the boys.

“Easy for you to say, Potter. We both know the only reason why he’s taking any liking towards you is that you’re pureblooded. If it weren’t for that, he’d be snubbing you and you know it. Besides you hardly even know the guy, and you’re already going to defend him?”

“Exactly he hardly knows him, and neither do you, so why are you attacking the boy. He’s not his parents. Hell, you’re not your parents, so stop fighting their feud!” Marlene probably would have shut the two boys up after that statement if a third hadn’t joined in, telling Sirius,

“You going to let the girl fight for you Black? Can’t even stand up for yourself?”

“Sirius let it go. It’s not worth it,” Remus told him over Sirius’ shoulder, but Sirius was already too pissed off to listen. Instead, he snapped.

“No,” he said as he turned to the third guy, “I can stand up for myself, this childish tomfoolery simply isn’t worth my time.” He turned towards James and Marlene, “Thanks guys, but I can handle it myself.” James and Marlene simply nodded to the Black boy.

The Gryffindors teasing him let up after that, for a bit, before they started up a conversation with Sirius. They hoped to piss him off bad enough, and that’s exactly what happened.

“How’s it feel, knowing that you’re just as good as the rest of us _Black_? A hit like that to your ego ought to hurt, doesn’t it?” The third boy asked. Sirius huffed, rolled his eyes, and tried to keep to himself walking up the next staircase with the rest of the group. The second boy decided now to join in on the conversation though, in hopes to continue driving the knife in Sirius.

“Just imagine when mummy and daddy hear the news. How long do you think it’ll be before they get Dumbledore fired because they didn’t get their way? I’d say no longer than lunch tomorrow, what about you guys?”

“Nah, they’d probably have it done by breakfast, mean, we all know they will, they own like half the ministry, don’t they Black?”

At this point, Sirius was seething with anger. Sirius knew his family wouldn’t be happy about the sorting hat’s choice, but hearing that other people knew that too, just made it harder. Sirius just wanted to shut the boys up. He couldn’t take it any longer. The baaing was annoying, the inferring him to be weak was hysterical, but pointing out how upset his family was at him and the school, that just wouldn’t do. Sirius knew that if he couldn’t get the boys to stop talking, he could at least make it a bit easier on his ears. Sirius turned back to the boys with a wicked grin on his face. They were so unsuspecting, it was so easy.

“Mimblewimble,” and just like that the boys’ speech was no longer coherent. Their tongues were tied in a knot. Sirius laughed at their faces as they noticed what happened. It was blissful for about five seconds before the prefect turned around and saw what had just happened.

“Enough! Black, fix this,” Billius told him. At first, Sirius considered whether or not to. He wasn’t feeling generous though, so he shook his head at the prefect.

“No. They can talk all they want, but I won't hear it anymore.”

Billius turned towards the three Gryffindors with knotted tongues and performed the counter curse before turning back to Sirius.

“I don’t know how it is back home for you,” Billius began. Of course, he had no clue, he could only dream of living a life like Sirius had, the poor Weasley clan. “And I know you were looking forward to being like the rest of your precious family in Slytherin, but you’re not there. You’re here – in Gryffindor, and we do not curse our housemates. Is that understood?” Sirius reluctantly nodded. “And when a prefect orders you to remove said curse, you remove it. Immediately. You do not talk back. Do I make myself clear, _Black_?”

“Crystal, _Weasley_.”

“I should be deducting points right now, but the year hasn’t even begun, and I’d only be taking them from the rest of the house as well. Not that you’d care. You only care that Slytherin wins the cup, right?” he began. Sirius rolled his eyes as Billius continued. “Instead, I shall find a more suitable punishment.” Sirius flinched at the word, and James must have noticed.

“And what about those three? You’re just going to let them off the hook? They’re hardly innocent either,” James said, stepping in to defend Sirius once again. Sirius didn’t understand why. They hardly knew each other, and he was willing to risk pissing off a prefect and getting in trouble for him?

“ _Those three_ , never _once_ physically attacked Black. He did. It doesn’t matter what they said, if they didn’t hurt him, then Black had no reason to hex them.”

“But –” James tried, but Billius cut him off.

“What Potter? Are you trying to tell me that before Black hexed them, the others had their wands out and Sirius was acting out of self-defense?”

“No, but –”

“Did one or all three of the boys aim a hit at Black before he cursed them? Were they about to punch or kick him?”

“No, but –”

“So, Sirius was the first to physically attack the three?”

“Yes, but –”

“No, that’s all I need to hear. I understand you are just trying to help Black out, but he _was_ in the wrong here and deserves to be punished.” Sirius flinched again at the word as Billius turned around and began again leading the first years to Gryffindor tower.

“Sorry mate, I tried, but I guess based on technicalities…” James’s thought fell short as he approached Sirius.

“It’s ok. Don’t sweat it. He’s right. Thanks for trying though,” Sirius told the messy-haired boy as he forced a smile. He smiled back.

“The hex you used was pretty impressive though. You ought to teach me that. Where’d you learn it anyway? It looked quite advanced.”

“Oh, uh, I read about it in one of the boys in my father’s study. No big deal.” Sirius lied. He knew the boy was nice and kind, but he still couldn’t trust him with the truth. Even if he did trust him, he couldn’t tell him the real reason. It would make things even worse to these Gryffindors if they knew his father would use it to shut him up when he was little.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink dress. She was ignoring everything around her as she sang lousy opera. The sound of her voice was off-key and physically painful for Sirius. How was he meant to put up with this for seven years? Not just the fat lady, but the other Gryffindors, and his family? He was so screwed.

* * *

Remus watched as Billius told them the password to get into the common room: Bowtruckle. As the portrait door swung open, they each rushed inside to find themselves in a cozy, round room filled with squashy furniture. They were in the common room. Remus looked around in awe, as did many others. They saw the huge fireplace with a beautiful portrait overtop and comfy armchairs in front of it. There were study tables in the back and a spiral staircase in the back.

Billius directed the boys down one side of the hall upstairs and the girls to the opposite to find their dormitories. Remus walked up the spiral staircase and followed Billius’ instruction to find his bed in a room with four others. They were each poster beds with deep red, velvet curtains and each of which had the person’s trunk already set atop of.

Remus looked around to see all he’d be dorming with, and just his luck it was the boys from dinner. Remus’ bed was located on the far right and to his left were Sirius then James and Peter.

Even though all four of them were exhausted, none of them could find it in themselves to go to sleep, so instead, they stayed up eating the last of all their candy from the trolley on the train, playing exploding snap, and talking about home.

Turns out Remus was alone in a dorm with all pureblooded wizards, one of which was a big deal in the wizarding world. Nobody even bothered to ask about his family and the boy chose not to mention it, though that night Remus did catch him writing a letter to someone which if he had to guess, was to his family.

Before long there was a knocking at the door. Billius. Remus answered.

“Professor McGonagall has requested for you to come and meet her down in the common room when you can. She said she needed to speak with you about something. I don’t know,” He told to Remus. He nodded his head.

“Getting kicked out of Hogwarts already Lupin? You’re such a troublemaker.” James laughed teasing the boy. Remus forced a smile before heading out and shutting the door, leaving his new dormmates.

He walked down the stairs to find the professor waiting for him. She was in her pajamas ready to head to bed.

“Ah, Mr. Lupin. The headmaster wishes to speak to you about your monthly arrangements. He sent for me to come to fetch you and take you to his office,” she explained. Remus nodded his head as they both made their way out of the room and began walking through the empty corridors. They walked in silence until they arrived at a statue of a griffin by the looks of it. Its head, torso, and talons were that of an eagle, and the body of a lion. The professor walked up to the statue and muttered a phrase to it, “Caramel Cobwebs.” It was a password, Remus noticed, much like the one used to enter the Gryffindor common room. Before Remus knew it, the griffin statue lept out of the way as the wall behind it split into two to reveal a spiral stone staircase. “Well come on,” McGonagall told Remus as they stood on one of the steps as the staircase raised much like a muggle escalator. It moved slowly upwards as the griffin statue lept back into place closing the entrance behind them both.

Once at the top they saw a polished oak door with a brass knocker which was also in the shape of a griffin. Before either of the two were able to use the door’s knocker it flew open into a beautiful, large circular room. Huge windows were showing a view of the mountains which surrounded the castle and the quidditch pitch. The office was illuminated by candlelight and a huge fireplace along with one of the walls giving the room a warm golden feel that complimented the red and gold accents.

The walls were covered in portraits which all moved, and right behind the headmaster’s desk laid the sorting hat from earlier. The desk itself was huge and the surface was covered in papers. There, on top of one of the papers was an inkpot with a beautiful scarlet quill. Remus soaked in everything he could see in the office before his eyes finally landed on the headmaster himself.

“Ah, Remus, Minerva. Thank you for coming. As you know Remus, the full moon is only three days away so we must discuss the arrangements with you now so you can feel comfortable when the time comes this weekend,” He told Remus. To Dumbledore’s right though there was another person. A woman with curly greying hair in full hospital wear. She had blue eyes and she looked at Remus with concern but forced a smile. She wasn’t concerned about Remus, the werewolf, being at the school though. She was concerned for Remus. Remus looked towards the headmaster and his head of house who were also staring at him. He didn’t like the situation.

Remus felt extremely uncomfortable. He was a child in a room full of adults all staring at him. It was unsettling. He hoped the headmaster would treat his condition well, but he didn’t trust the man, not really. And now there were two other people, one of which he only knew for about a couple hours now, and the other he’d never met before. It scared him. Not only was he now trusting the headmaster with this secret, but also these two? He didn’t mean to sound ungrateful to the man, but he just had to ask, “With all due respect professor, I thought we were trying to keep my,” he paused for a second before continuing, “condition secret?” Instead of being upset the headmaster read the worry in Remus’ voice and simply smiled gently at the boy.

“I understand your concerns mister Lupin, but I assure you, these two hold your best interests at heart as well as I. These two have been the only two notified of your condition, and only so because I deemed it necessary for your time at Hogwarts to go by well. Professor McGonagall is your head of house; therefore, she needs to be notified when you are absent for long periods of time to notify other teachers and students if they begin to ask around. Her job is to help with keeping your condition secret while you recover.” This helped Remus a bit to calm down, but what about the other woman? “To my left here is Madam Pomfrey. She’d a highly competent healer who works in the hospital wing. Poppy’s job is to help your transformations go as smoothly as possible by alleviating any pain or uncomfortableness you might feel beforehand, as well as retrieving you and taking you to the hospital wing after your transformations to help to heal and rest afterward so you can make a speedy recovery.”

The information did help to calm Remus down. If these two did want to help Remus he should be extremely thankful, not cold towards them. Before the headmaster dismissed the professor, he thanked her as well as Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey.

“Now that that’s been settled, how about we take a walk?” Dumbledore asked as he made way for the door. “As I previously stated, Madam Pomfrey will be here to help aid you every month. You and she will meet at the hospital wing an hour before sunset which she will walk you down to a safe location for your transitions.”

Madam Pomfrey and Remus followed the headmaster as he walked out to the grounds where there laid a huge tree: The whomping willow. The same tree Dumbledore had just warned for nobody to go near unless they wish to die.

“Ah, here we are,” he told Remus.

“professor? Didn’t you just say how we weren’t meant to go near this tree?”

“You listen quite well mister Lupin. See Professor Sprout, who teaches herbology here at Hogwarts, helped me in planting it this summer. It’s here to guard a passageway from Hogwarts to a building down in Hogsmeade. That is where Madam Pomfrey will take you before coming back to retrieve you the next morning.”

“And how does one get past?”

“Well, you see that knot there at the base of the tree. If you press it, the tree freezes in place for a short time making the passageway visible and safe to enter, however, unless the knot is pressed, it can be quite dangerous to get past, hence why students are told to stay away. Here, see?” Madam Pomfrey explained before conjuring a rubber bouncy ball and throwing it towards the tree. The tree’s branched flailed as it went to attack the bouncy ball, beating it into the earth before settling back in place. Remus was left in shock. The tree was truly terrifying. “But if one was to touch the knot,” she levitated a twig off the ground and pressed it against the knot on the tree’s trunk, “Then the tree stills.”

“Come on, let’s go check it out,” Dumbledore said as he made way to the opening of the tree, while the other two followed. They entered and slid down into a tunnel, and as they landed Dumbledore cast a spell lighting the tip of his wand like a flashlight.

“I guess it’d have been best for me to show you before we entered, but I might as well teach you this little party trick. You’ll learn it in one of your first charms classes, however, you may find it handy beforehand. Just wave your wand like this and say ‘lumos’” he told the werewolf. Remus muttered the incantation and on his first try the wand lit up much like the other twos. “Now, to end it, you must only say nox, and the light should die out.”

The three continued trekking through the dark secret passageway as Dumbledore told Remus that they’d need to decide on an excuse that both himself and Professor McGonagall would be able to advertise so that Remus can recover without raising any suspicions.

Finally, they arrived at the base of an old, abandoned building with boarded-up windows, moth-eaten furniture, and dust-covered rooms. Remus wasn’t about to judge though. He was lucky to be going to Hogwarts at all and to have someone there to patch him up after the full moons was extremely nice. Dumbledore talked then about all the protective enchantments he had cast on the building to keep people from entering as well as from people growing suspicious of what was inside. He talked about a charm he used to keep people out, and how if people were to get too close to the building, then they’d hear screaming causing them to flee the area. Remus couldn’t be more thankful for all the effort and thought the headmaster went through to help him.

As they headed back Remus smiled, it was small but genuine. Madam Pomfrey and the headmaster kept reassuring that Remus was in good hands and how safe he would be at Hogwarts, and Remus knew that they meant it.

* * *

By the time Remus was able to make his way back to the dorm, it was extremely late in the night. When he opened the door to his dorm room, the lights were off, and all the curtains of the beds were shut. They were all asleep. Remus didn’t blame them. He was so exhausted at this point he moved the half-unpacked trunk and its contents off of his bed and laid down, drawing the curtains of the poster bed on his way in. Time ticked by and Remus was so anxious for tomorrow though that he was unable to fall asleep. He laid tossing and turning until he got up out of bed and went through his trunk to find the book he was reading on the train. He grabbed the wand on his nightstand then settled in bed, drawing the curtains shut once more before he opened the book in his lap, flicked his wand, and muttered the word,

“Lumos.”


	8. To Kill a Werewolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius and Remus POVs of their first day of classes at Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has many parallels between it and the original Harry Potter Series. This chapter makes some references to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: "The Potion's Master." In which It is Harry's first day of classes, much like the marauders.

Sirius woke the next morning well-rested until he remembered what had occurred the night before. He grunted and tried to roll over back to sleep when one of his roommates drew the curtains of his bed open.

“Come on Sirius. You’ve got to get out of bed, or you’ll miss breakfast,” James tried as he gently shook the boy. Sirius didn’t want to get out of bed though, so to hide his eyes from the light he pulled the pillow over his bed and told them to leave him alone. “You guys head down, we’ll meet you in a few minutes,” he told their other two roommates.

“You sure? It doesn’t look like he’s getting up anytime soon,” Remus informed James as he tried waking the boy again.

“Just in case, would you guys mind bringing me some toast back if we’re not down in time?”

Remus nodded.

“Ooh, grab me a piece too,” Sirius said through the pillow.

“No. If you want toast get off your lazy arse and get some toast.” Remus snapped at the muffled voice belonging to the boy. Remus felt bad about how mean that might have sounded, but the full moon was only a couple of days away, and Remus wasn’t having it.

James was about to ask how Remus understood that, but before he could the pillow moved off of Sirius’ head. He kicked the blankets off and stood up out of bed.

“Fine. You’re mean, Lupin,” Sirius said as he pouted, but then smiled back to the boy.

Sirius proceeded to get ready for the day as he got dressed, combed his hair, and brushed his teeth.

“Better?” He asked sarcastically to the boys who were waiting for him as he exited the bathroom.

“It’ll do,” Remus told the boy as he walked to the exit, but on the way he turned around and smirked, causing Sirius to smile one last time before the talking started up again.

* * *

“There, look.”

“Where?”

“Next to the kid wearing glasses.”

“That’s Sirius Black.”

“I know.”

The talking followed Sirius the whole way from the dormitory through the common room, to the great hall for breakfast. The sheep noises from last night caught on as well as the name Black Sheep. It was annoying, but Sirius could live with it. People always talked about his family; he was used to it. He just never heard it in such a way.

Sirius got his breakfast and watched as the mail came into the great hall that morning. He watched as every first-year received a letter from their parents telling how proud they were of their child, but him. He knew that his family wouldn’t be thrilled but seeing the smiles on the rest of his roommates' faces, all happy and thrilled, made him feel down. And what made him feel worse was that he wasn’t upset at his roommates, or his parents, but himself for letting them down.

Sirius tried to quiet the thoughts in his head. It was his first official day at Hogwarts. He wasn’t going to feel bad. While his roommates chatted about the letters their parents sent, Sirius focused on the food on his plate. He drowned out their conversations until Professor McGonagall came by their table to give them all their timetables, then they left the great hall to their first-ever class.

Once they were walking in the halls to find their first class, Sirius began to notice the talking again. People stopped in the corridors to get a look at him, some shouting out names, others knocking him in the side as he walked past. He never knew how deep the hatred towards his family went before. Sirius wished they could just go on with their lives and ignore his presence entirely at this point because it was making things harder on him as he tried to navigate the halls to find his classes. And the halls were almost impossible to navigate even without all this.

There were so many doors in the castle, some of which were real and some which were fake. Some wouldn’t open unless you asked politely and some if you didn’t tickle them in the right place. Even Sirius, who grew up in the wizarding world, found it incredibly confusing to keep track of. Then there were the staircases. There were almost a hundred and fifty staircases at Hogwarts, each one just as confusing as the next. Some had trick steps you could fall through, others led to a different area on Fridays. And the moving staircases had no rhyme or rhythm whatsoever and constantly moved to a different place without any reasoning. The castle was so huge, it was hard to keep track of where anything was. Even if Sirius and his roommates managed to find their first class, they’d be lucky to know which way they came from afterward.

The portraits weren’t helping at all. When Sirius tried to ask for directions one of them tried to spit in his face. Nobody at Hogwarts liked his family. Even though his great-great-grandfather Phineas Nigellus Black was headmaster her at one point he was known to be the least popular headmaster at the school. Sirius smiled at that. They can call him a black sheep all they wanted, but at the end of the day, all he could think of was of the ways he was similar to his family instead, Slytherin or not.

The four boys approached another door which James had struggled to open up. Before they knew it though, Sir Nicholas glided through the door scaring them all for a split second. It was going to take some time to get used to the ghosts, Sirius noted.

“Excuse me, Sir Nicholas,” James asked as the ghost flew away. Luckily, he must have heard because he turned around towards the boys.

“What can I do for you boys? I assume you’re lost?”

“Yes, um, well we were trying to find our way to transfiguration, but it seems we’ve gotten turned around,” James explained to the pearly white ghost. They were lucky Sir Nicholas was so helpful or else they probably would have been late.

The boys each sat at the last couple of desks available in the back of the room as they waited for class to begin, yet the teacher wasn’t there yet.

“She probably got lost in the maze of staircases also,” James joked as he sat down beside Sirius. Sirius looked at the professor’s desk though and spotted a cat sitting patiently.

“The cat seems a bit odd don’t you think?” Remus leaned over to the other boys asking.

“It seems normal to me.” Peter squeaked, as James nodded. Sirius took a long look at the cat though eyeing it.

“I don’t think it is a cat,” He told Remus as he came to the decision.

“What do you mean?” James looked at Sirius questioning.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve picked up on it James, but nothing here is as it seems. The doors don’t open all the time, and the stairs have a mind of their own, so I find it hard to believe that it’s _just a cat_ on the professor’s desk. Probably part kneazle or something at least.”

“A kneazle?” Peter asked.

And just like that, the cat on the desk leapt in the air as it transformed into the professor herself as she began lecturing about the subject of transfiguration.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." She was strict and direct, getting straight to the point. Sirius liked that. She wasn’t a teacher one should cross, Sirius made note of. Before anyone knew it, she flicked her wand, muttered an incantation, and her desk changed into a pig. Sirius looked around at all the amazed faces and those who were shocked.

They wouldn’t be changing furniture to animals anytime soon though and instead began taking a bunch of complicated lecture notes. Sirius didn’t take any though, instead, he spent his time listening and watching the other students. He made not of who all was writing in a panic to capture every word the professor spoke, those who knew how to actually take notes, and those who while taking notes were giving off nervous energy as they tapped their feet under their desks or bit their fingernails. Nobody but Sirius was just listening though. McGonagall looked back at Sirius several times, a bit annoyed by his lack of and attention, but Sirius could care less. He was listening, and that’s all that he felt the need to do.

After they were done with lecture notes, they were each given a match and told to turn it into a needle. Instead of immediately attempting to turn the match into a needle, like the rest of his peers, Sirius instead watched as they struggled, noting what mistakes each person was making. The boy three seats away was holding his wand differently than how Professor McGonagall instructed, and the girl with red hair in the front was waving hers too much. After having fun with making observations, Sirius finally picked his wand up off the desk he sat it on when he first arrived. He flicked his wand once without the incantation to watch his wand work, before attempting the words. He made not of how large his strokes were compared to the professors before he gave another attempt, this time with the incantation. Right in front of his eyes, he watched as the match transformed into a needle. Sirius picked it up and eyed his work.

“How’d you do that?” James asked. Remus lifted his head to see and was just as surprised by Sirius’ skill.

“What do you mean?”

“You hardly took any notes and yet you completed it your first try, Sirius. What do you think I meant?”

Sirius shrugged,

“I don’t know. I can try to help you if you’d like.”

James nodded and gave another attempt as Sirius watched.

“You’re waving your wand too much. Instead of a big stroke, try a smaller one. Also, it’d probably benefit if you hold your wand like so, instead,” Sirius demonstrate to the boy. James took in the advice and gave it another go, and just like that, the match shifted into that of a needle. Remus and Peter got up out of their seats after that and walked over to Sirius for help. Before Sirius knew it 10 people were crowding around James and him all asking for advice. How is it that Sirius went from most hated to most helpful in this short time? Sure, everyone might still not like him, but at least it was better than this morning. As class ended everyone packed up and made way for the door. It was then that Sirius heard his name called to stay behind.

“We’ll wait outside the door for you,” James let him know. He smiled at his roommates before turning to the Professor. Sirius wasn’t looking forward to this. She was probably going to give him detention or deduct house points for his lack of attention in class, but it wasn’t like that at all, he just didn’t take notes.

“I’m impressed. I haven’t seen a student with your amount of natural talent in transfiguration in a long time, mister Black. It was quite refreshing. I also noticed how once you figured it out, you took it upon yourself to help your fellow classmates. I understand that you and mister Potter have gotten along, but to help out others who hadn’t been so kind to you earlier, that impressed me. You might not be looking forward to your time in my house, but I’m proud to say you’re a Gryffindor. Four points mister Black. You’ve earned it. Now off you go, I heard your friends are waiting for you.” She smiled before turning around and heading back to her desk sifting through papers. Sirius hadn’t expected that but walked towards the door like nothing happened anyways. As he crossed the threshold, James, Peter, and Remus all hoarded around him asking,

“Well?”

“What Happened?”

“What’d McGonagall have to say?”

“Well, I think she just gave house points,” Sirius thought out loud. He still wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened. He played the conversation over in his head one last time.

“How many?” James asked the boy.

“Four. Apparently, I’ve earned it.”

James slapped him on the back congratulating the boy.

“Way to go, mate. Keep being on McG’s good side and Gryffindor will win the cup in no time. And they’ll owe it all to you.”

“Did you just call her McG?” Remus laughed.

“Uh, _yea_. Everyone calls her that,” James told them. They all just laughed at them as Remus shook his head.

“No. Nobody calls her that.”

“Well, they will. I’ll start it,” James laughed.

* * *

James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus all laughed as they made their way to their next class. No one was as bothered by being lost as they were this morning as they headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. They all looked forward to the class. It was everyone’s favorite, and when they entered the room they were welcomed with skeletons of dragons and an Abraxan winged horse hanging from the ceiling, the heads of house-elves and a unicorn mounted to the wall, acromantula pincers on the shelf, jars of vampire fangs, and Cornish pixies, and diagrams of werewolves on the tables beside the professor’s desk. Remus felt extremely uncomfortable as he took his seat next to Sirius, James, and Peter, though he doubted they would do anything if the professor were to attack Remus for his bones.

Class began though as the professor made his way out of his office and towards the front of the room.

“Hello. My name is Professor Arawn, and I’ll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year,” he spoke. When he spoke, his voice was scratchy, and his accent was Welsh. The man wore robes that appeared more like a cloak around him, and his hair changed colors over time. It was subtle, but Remus noticed. His eyes were pitch black and his nose was bent. When he walked, he limped, but not enough for the normal eye to catch, though, Remus’ eyes weren’t exactly normal.

He told the class about himself and how he used to hunt vampires in Spain before Dumbledore asked him to teach. He showed the class his jar of vampire's teeth, which everyone but Remus awed at. He talked about the magical properties it held as well as how rare they can be. The man told the class how all of the artifacts in the room were either killed by him or found dead on one of his travels. Remus was already feeling sick to his stomach at the sight of all the professor had killed, but he struggled to maintain sitting calmly when one kid asked what he’d like most to capture before he died.

“Well, I’d have to say I’d love to kill a werewolf.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Arawn is the Celtic god of the dead, war, revenge and terror within the Welsh mythology. The professor in this story has many victims lying about in his classroom, each of which had been killed by professor Arawn himself. At the end of the chapter when the professor states that he'd love to kill a werewolf, he says this because he wants revenge for something we will learn about in later chapters.  
> Hope you've enjoyed this one!


	9. How Goes Transfiguration?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus, James, and Sirius' POVs of Friday September 3rd, 1971  
> Remus must deal with his nerves about the full moon.  
> James invites Marlene to join him for class, but worries about Sirius.  
> Sirius receives a letter at breakfast and attends double potions with the Slytherins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter has several parallels to the marauder's journey and Harry Potter's in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: "The Potions Master."  
> WARNING: This chapter contains spoilers to The Outsiders, a book by S.E. Hinton.

The human mind is incapable of telling the difference between real people and fictional characters. So, When Remus read Johnny’s death in _The Outsiders_ by S.E. Hinton, his immediate reaction was to mourn.

Growing up Remus was always reading. He struggled to have friends growing up since his family worked so hard to keep his condition secret. The characters Remus read and pictured in his brain ended up becoming his friends, which only made things harder on Remus when Johnny passed.

Remus set the book on his nightstand and went to bed, full well knowing he wouldn’t be sleeping. If not for Johnny’s death, then for the full moon which was only a day away now. Nevertheless, he laid his head on his pillow and stared at the ceiling until eventually his mind began to rest and drift off into sleep. It only lasted 4 hours and he was unable to fall back afterward, but at least he got more rest than he had thought would happen.

Remus sat in his bed at 4:00 in the morning on Friday the 3rd of September debating whether or not to pick up his book and continue. It wasn’t that it was terrible. It was the complete opposite. It was easily one of Remus’ new favorites, however, the heartbreak he felt after reading it last night was too much for him. What a shame that reading was one of the few things that ever helped to clear his head before a full moon. His mind was always going crazy before a full. His senses were dialed to 12 and he was unable to rest, no matter how desperately he required it.

By the time it was 4:45, Remus finally said ‘screw it’ to himself and picked up the book to finish. He headed down the stairs to the common room with his book and wand in hand. He cast a spell to start the fire before falling into one of the comfy worn-in chairs, opening his book, and continuing Ponyboy’s adventure.

At 6:00 that morning, sharp, the red-haired girl named Lily walked downstairs dressed and ready for the day.

“The Outsiders?” She asked after taking a quick glance at the cover. Remus simply nodded. Lily took the boy’s nodding as permission to join and slid into the chair across from him and smiled.

“Yea, you read it?”

“It’s one of my favorites. I even brought a copy with me here. You like it?”

“Yea. I don’t know if it’s just really good writing, but I got a bit too attached to Johnny. Couldn’t sleep after what happened, so here I am, _reading it_.” He told the girl as he waved the open copy in the air smiling.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve been up all night? You’ll be slumped come class.” She smiled back. Remus simply shrugged.

“I couldn’t quite get myself to fall asleep anyways, so I might as well have made use of the time.” Lily rolled her eyes, but she didn’t seem to judge the boy much, which Remus appreciated.

“Well, I can’t blame you. It’s a hard book to put down anyway. Are you muggle-born? Just cause the book.” She was a bit hesitant to ask, not knowing if it was an ok thing to mention in casual conversation, but Remus didn’t mind at all.

“Half-blood. My dad’s a wizard, mum’s a muggle. What about you? if you don’t mind me asking.”

“I’m a muggle-born.”

“Do you know where your magical ancestors come from, or were you and your family just alerted about the Wizarding world overnight?”

“You know, I don’t know. I had no clue for a while. I knew I was different, but it wasn’t until I met Sev that I learned of all _this_. Even hearing about it I had doubts it was real, but here I am.” She opened her arms as a gesture of her being at Hogwarts.

“Sev, he’s the Slytherin boy you’re always around, right?”

“Yea.”

They continued to talk until Remus decided it was probably time to head up to the dorm to get ready for the day. He and Lily parted ways, and the girl headed to breakfast when her other roommates, Marlene and another girl named Mary MacDonald, began walking downstairs.

“Hey Remus,” Marlene waved to the boy as they crossed paths. Remus waved back to the girl smiling as he made his way up the staircases and down the hall until he arrived at the door to his dorm. He could already hear the voices on the other side before he arrived. Remus didn’t know if they were just being that loud, or if it was just his hearing though. So, when he opened the door, he chose not to comment on the boys’ volume.

Unlike yesterday where James was kindly telling Sirius to wake up, they were fighting each other instead. James was jumping on the boy’s bed while Sirius tried to play asleep. James was shouting at the top of his lungs for the boy to get dressed. He hopped off the bed and went over to the Black heir’s trunk and threw robes at his face. He pulled the covers off the boy’s head sliding them down the bed as Sirius tried to shrink down with them. James finally grabbed Sirius’ leg at one point and pulled him out of bed while Sirius tried his hardest to grab the sheets to keep himself on.

Thud.

Sirius finally hit the floor.

“Come on! We have classes, and we’re going to be late for breakfast if you don’t get ready,” James informed the boy nudging him with his foot as Sirius tried to curl up on the floor and fall back asleep. Remus just watched the events as he got ready for the day.

“Trying a different strategy today I see,” Remus smiled at James as he dragged the boy over to the bathroom throwing the robes into Black’s hands and shutting the door.

“Get dressed Sirius,” he told the boy through the door before looking back over to Remus. “Yea well, friendly didn’t quite work yesterday, so I’m trying something else out.” James smiled at Remus. He cared too much about Sirius’ wellbeing. It was sweet, but he didn’t deserve James bending over backward to help him. Especially when he had hardly known the boy.

* * *

James and his new friends sat down at the great hall for breakfast. They ate their toast and told jokes. He looked over to Marlene and smiled, waving for her to come and join which she quickly did.

“How’s it been, Marls?”

The girl smiled brightly and fell in the seat beside James.

“I hardly saw you yesterday.”

“I know – it was fantastic,” James joked. Marlene nudged the boy playfully in the side as he smiled. “How about we sit together for classes today?”

“That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Sounds fun,” Marlene told the boy.

“What do we have today anyway?” James asked his roommates and Marlene.

“Double Potions with the Slytherins,” said Marlene. “Slughorn’s Head of Slytherin House. Matt says, he gives special treatment to his favorites, so first impressions are crucial, guess we’ll be able to see if that’s true.”

James thought to himself that that was probably the reason Sirius was so persistent on staying in bed. It wasn’t like yesterday was that bad. But it was probably hard on the boy to have a class with the people he should have been housed with. He looked over at the Black boy who was just starring down at his plate eating his food. He looked miserable. If James hadn’t just asked Marlene to join him today, he would have been sitting with Sirius. James looked up at Remus eyeing him and nodding his head towards the boy as if to say, ‘you’ll look after him?’

Remus nodded and gave a sympathetic smile towards James.

“And what happens if we aren’t liked?” Peter pipped up to ask.

“I don’t know. I bumped into him in the hall the first day and he seemed pretty nice about it, even helped me find the right class.”

* * *

Mail arrived again as a hundred owls had flown into the great hall circling the tables until they saw their owners and dropped letters and packages into their laps. Sirius wasn’t expecting anything, but he watched this time as his family’s owl flew down and dropped a note onto Sirius’ plate. He picked it up and eyed the handwriting that looked almost identical to his own, and ripped it open at once. It was from Regulus.

_Dear Sirius,_

_Sorry I was unable to respond sooner. Mother and Father weren’t eager to let me send this, so I’m responding in secret. Please do not respond._

_I wish you the best at Hogwarts, and I’m sorry you weren’t in Slytherin like we had all thought you would, but I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy it anyway. You always know how to have fun in the hardest of times. You’re not going to like returning home for break after spending so much time there._

_Miss you,_

_Reggie_

Sirius folded up the note from his brother and placed it in his pocket to read again later. When he looked back up, he noticed everyone was staring at him with expecting eyes. They were waiting to see whether or not it was good. They must have all noticed Sirius’ lack of mail yesterday, so Sirius’ smiled at them to calm them down. They smiled back and sighed in relief for Sirius. He thought about how nice it was of his roommates to be concerned for him. He didn’t understand why they were, but for some reason, he appreciated it.

The four of them and Marlene all walked down to the dungeons. They had gotten turned around a couple of times before making it to the door.

“ _Shit_ , this school could use a map,” Remus huffed as they made it in at the last second. Since James and Marlene were sitting together today, Remus asked Sirius to join him. They took their seats as Professor Slughorn’s lecture began.

“With everything that moves it the castle, it’d be convenient, I’ll give you that.”

“Even more reason for it. There are so many halls, moving staircases, doors that appear out of thin air. I don’t get how the upperclassmen navigate it so well.”

“Alright,” Sirius said as he grabbed a piece of parchment from his bookbag, “Let’s make one then.”

“Ok, but after class. Unlike you, I could use the note-taking,” he smiled at the black-haired boy and began digging in his bag for parchment when Sirius simply slid his over to Remus instead.

“Here, use mine, we both know I won’t be,” Sirius told Remus.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Slughorn lectured the class about the art of potion-making in his light airy way which managed to lose a few people’s attention not ten minutes in. Sirius was one of those people. Although he listened to the professor talk, it was more like background noise as he examined the room around him and the people sitting at the desks. There was almost a distinct line between the Slytherin house and the Gryffindors. Each claimed half of the room and sat there avoiding making contact with the other house, except for two people at the front. It was the girl and boy from the train ride: Lily and Snivellus – er Severus. They both were the most excited to the class with their heads tilted up at the professor almost in awe of him and the subject he had taught.

As Sirius looked around the classroom itself, he saw the walls with potion ingredients and pickled animals floating in glass jars. There was a cupboard with more ingredients as well, and a long blackboard in the front which held the professor’s lecture notes. In the corner of the classroom, there was a basin that poured icy cold water from a gargoyle’s mouth. Sirius made a mental note of how the room was cold in general, ‘probably to help preserve the ingredients’, he thought.

The class dragged on for what seemed like forever. Professor Slughorn and the two from the train might have found the topics interesting, but Sirius didn’t. He couldn’t wait for it to be over, but that just wasn’t the case. Finally, Slughorn ended his lecture notes and dismissed the group to brewing a cure for boils. It was a good thing Remus took notes because Sirius had to ask to borrow them so he wouldn’t be completely lost. Remus shook his head unsurprised but slid them over to Sirius anyways.

Since they worked in pairs, Remus and Sirius, James and Marlene, and Peter and some other Gryffindor girl which Sirius didn’t seem to care for all worked together. As they all sat working, Professor Slughorn circled the classroom making stops at each student’s workspace, starting conversations, and marking their progress. Marlene was right, he did seem nice. Eventually, Slughorn came up to Sirius and Remus’ station and began a nice chat with the boys.

“And you must be Sirius Black, a pleasure to meet you, my boy. I heard so many great things about you,” he smiled as he reached out a hand for Sirius to shake. Sirius reluctantly did so though. He didn’t understand why, but he didn’t like the professor’s smile. It just felt like it had to be fake. How does one hold it for so long anyway?

“Yes, sir.”

“And remind me again what your name is,” he turned to Sirius’ partner to ask.

“Remus Lupin, sir.” They shook hands as well and Sirius watched as Slughorn’s smile brightened at the name.

“Lyall’s boy?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I haven’t seen him in years, not since he left the ministry. How’s he doing?”

“He’s doing well, we move around a lot.”

“Yes well, one could assume they’d have to stay on their toes after the whole werewolf situation. Nothing can stop one from finding you once they catch your scent.”

Sirius looked over to Remus who was visibly uncomfortable at this point. What werewolf situation was Slughorn talking about though? Sirius was confused, but now that he looked back, he remembered how sick Remus looked during Defense Against the Dark Arts yesterday. Maybe that’s why he was so uneasy, it must be a sore topic for the boy.

Slughorn and Remus’ conversation was cut short however when the cauldron at James and Marlene’s station melted away.

“Oops, that – that’s my bad,” he overheard James tell both Marlene and the professor.

Their melted cauldron began spilling across the table burning through it as it hit the stone floor. Slughorn helped the two clean up their station and once the professor had left, Sirius just had to lean over to the boy in glasses and ask,

“Didn’t your father invent Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion?”

“Yea, ‘Two drops tames even the most bothersome barnet,’” James quoted the slogan smiling back at Sirius. At this point, Sirius could no longer keep his straight face as a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth.

“You’d think he’d be a bit better at potions then,” Remus chimed in also smiling.

“You’d think he’d have better hair also,” Marlene quipped as she messed the hair on James’s head even more as she laughed, “but that’s just not the case.”

All four of them laughed at that before Sirius and Remus turned back to their station to finish the potion. Even though he wanted to ask Remus about what his conversation with Slughorn was about, he decided to leave it be. He didn’t want to pry anyway.

Class ended after that and they all tried to find their ways back to the common room, taking every wrong turn along the way.

“I’m telling you, we need to make a map,” Sirius told Remus.

“Why can’t we pitch it to one of the teachers to make. We don’t even know enough spells for it to track everything there is in the castle,” Remus argued with the blue-grey-eyed boy.

“That’s why the school has a library. All the spells we need in one place,” Sirius marketed to the boy.

Remus simply rolled his eyes at this though telling how,

“We’d have to know where to find it first though.”

* * *

Remus and his friends all headed up to their dorm. Remus watched as James, Sirius, and Peter joked around, while Remus grabbed the book off his nightstand and began reading the next chapter. A couple of chapters in and Remus was starting to get fidgety though. He couldn’t focus on the pages in front of him. His mind strayed to the upcoming full moon instead. It didn’t help that every little move his roommates made in the corner of his eyes had him snapping his neck. Every noise that was slightly louder than normal had his ears zoning in. He was getting too anxious. It was his first full moon without his parents around tomorrow, and Remus wasn’t ready.

He could feel the phantom pains in his side after last month. That one had been bad enough, and he was familiar with the area. What would happen here though? What if before Madam Pomfrey made it back to the shack, he died? He knew that werewolves who’d been bit at his age usually didn’t survive long before killing themselves, but Remus had. What was worse than him dying because Pomfrey didn’t save him in time, was the thought of her staying with him too late. He didn’t know the healer well, but he didn’t want to kill her. Eventually, Remus decided that he wasn’t going to make progress in his book any time soon, so he instead went up to the owlery to write a letter to his parents. He didn’t plan on actually sending it, but maybe if he got some of the thoughts rampaging about his head out, it would help calm him.

When he arrived, it was empty aside from one other student in Ravenclaw blue robes. They tied their letter to one of the school’s owls before sending it off and heading back inside, leaving Remus to himself. Remus sat on the window and began writing. He wrote until he ran out of things to say and began repeating himself before tearing the parchment apart in pieces and tossing it out the side of the owlery watching as the pieces caught the wind and flew about until they finally became too small for Remus to spot anymore. Remus sat there looking out at the view as the sun began to set before he stood back up and dusted himself off, heading back down to the dorms. He felt a bit better now, but he was still incredibly jumpy on the way back.

When Remus arrived back to the dorm room that night, he noticed Sirius sifting through his trunk for his pajamas. He and Remus were the only ones who never fully unpacked their trunks. Remus hadn’t because he knew at any second, he’d be kicked out, and if he had to guess, Sirius was probably planning to switch to Slytherin. Remus was surprised the boy hadn’t already, but he didn’t mind. He enjoyed the company. Sirius didn’t mind when Remus was short with him, and he was always putting a smile on the werewolf’s face. Sirius Black was starting to grow on Remus. He actually wouldn’t mind if Sirius was a friend, though he doubted the other boy felt the same.

It wasn’t like the boy showed any dislike towards Remus, but the things Remus heard about Sirius and his family made it hard to think that the Black heir actually liked him and was more likely just tolerating his presence. Sirius’ family thought of blood purity to be of high importance and they never really were known to enjoy the company of anyone who wasn’t pure-blooded unless it benefited them. Sirius was probably only tolerating the werewolf’s company in hopes not to make any more enemies in Gryffindor while he was still here. And besides, if Sirius didn’t like half-bloods and muggle-born witches and wizards, it was highly unlikely that he’d want to be anywhere near a werewolf.

Remus went inside his trunk and grabbed his toothbrush before heading to the restroom. Not long after he wet his brush Sirius then entered to brush his teeth as well. They stood in silence as they brushed their teeth before spitting in the sink and heading out.

“Where’d you go off to today?”

“What?” Remus asked completely confused as to what Sirius was asking about.

“Earlier today?” Sirius looked at the werewolf not understanding how he could be so confused. When he saw Remus maintaining his confused expression he went into more detail. “You just up and left the dorm room earlier today and were gone for hours remember?” he raised one of his eyebrows before he sighed. “Look if you don’t want to share, I won’t pry. That’s not my kind of thing.”

Sirius grabbed his transfiguration textbook, _A beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch, off his desk and began reading it. Remus reached over to his nightstand and decided to try again with his book from the train now that his mind wasn’t as busy. And yet after only a few pages, he decided to pick up their conversation once more.

“I was writing a letter to my parents. That’s why I left. I didn’t mean to be rude, I just…” Remus’ words trailed off before finishing though. Sirius looked up from his textbook at the sound of Remus’s voice.

“You’re all good. No hard feelings here. I get it. Things can be,” Sirius paused as he thought of the word, “complicated sometimes.”

“Yea. Hey, where are James and Peter?”

“Oh, they’re in the common room playing an intense game of exploding snap for who knows how many times now. Surprised you didn’t notice on your way in.”

“I, uh, might have been a bit distracted,” Remus scratched the back of his head.

“Right.”

The conversation died after that, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. The two went back to their reading before James and Peter stumbled in laughing. James picked up the book Sirius was reading, getting a look at the cover before asking,

“How goes transfiguration?”


	10. Hogwarts, His Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius Black and James Potter's POV of Saturday 4th, 1971. Sirius Black and his roommates spend the day exploring the castle together.

Sirius Black was an actor and a damn good one. For not even, he could tell where the character ended and himself began. He was so committed to the act because Sirius didn’t know what would happen if he dropped his character. The act was crucial to his survival.

Even if Sirius had dropped his character, he wouldn’t even know what that would be like — to play himself. He was so committed to the characters he played, he hardly knew who he, himself, was. When he looked in the mirror, he could recognize his face, but he had no clue who he was. It was never himself.

Sirius Black acted, putting his life on the line. He’d study the environment around him, the people, and their behaviors, then mimic them. At Hogwarts, he was placed in Gryffindor, a house of blood-traitors and less-thanes. He quickly picked up that he’d have to adapt to this. He wouldn’t survive if he acted the same way he had at home — they’d skin him alive. So, instead, Sirius played into it. He became one of them, a blood-traitor. The person who didn’t believe in blood purity. At first, it was just another aspect of his character, but overtime Sirius found himself beginning to _become_ the character. It scared him. He found himself slowly unable to tell the difference between himself and the other wizards around him. He began to see himself as the same as his peers, pure-blooded or not.

Sirius Black looked in the mirror and he truly believed he _was_ the character. It was only for a split second, but it happened. And it frightened him. It wasn’t because he hated the character he played. No, on the contrary. Sirius found himself enjoying his character even more with each passing day. He didn’t hate the character, but he knew he could never be him in real life. If he went home the same boy he was at school, it would be the end of him, and he knew it.

Sirius woke that morning and began getting ready for the day. He slid out of bed and made his covers before grabbing his towel and heading for the shower. He came out with his hair wet and a towel around his waist to find Remus sitting on his bed with a frown slowly unwrapping a bar of chocolate. Sirius took a deep breath and went into character once more.

“Are you ok? You seem a bit down.”

Remus paused his unwrapping as he turned his head towards the boy. He slowly nodded his head to say ‘yes’ and forced a smile. Sirius easily saw through it though. Nobody was better at acting than he. But he knew better than to pry. Remus resumed his unwrapping looking back down at the bar in his hands.

“Want some?” Remus asked as he broke off a piece of chocolate and handed it to the boy. Sirius simply thanked him and grabbed the chocolate out of his roommate’s hand.

“You got out of bed today?” Remus asked the wizard.

“Yea. Don’t go making a big deal of it. It’s only because I don’t have to go anywhere, I don’t like.”

“So, you’re just going to spend your first Saturday in the dorm?”

“No, I’ll probably take a walk on the grounds, visit the owlery, and explore the castle a bit. I’ll just try to avoid people, that’s all,” Sirius shrugged. “What about you? Got any plans for the day?”

“No, not until tonight at least,” Remus shook his head to answer as Sirius arched an eyebrow inquisitively. Remus ignored it though.

“You’re free to join me if you like,” Sirius smiled. Remus turned towards the boy to face him and nodded smiling back.

“Yea, sure.”

* * *

James woke up that morning to find two empty beds, but out of all the people to be missing he hadn’t expected one of them to be Sirius. But then again, if anyone was going to get Sirius out of bed, it would have been Remus. James smiled at the thought of Remus telling Sirius to get up.

Knowing that it was a Saturday, he had nowhere to be, and that Sirius was already up and about, James decided to turn over and sleep in a little longer before heading to breakfast.

About an hour later, James was finally ready and made his way down to the great hall with Peter. They talked about their plans for the day until they bumped into Sirius and Remus laughing about something.

“Hey, fancy seeing you out of your bed,” James joked to Sirius, who just smiled back at him.

“Hey, we’re just about to go explore the castle, you guys want to join?” The Black boy asked James and Peter.

“We were about to head for breakfast, but can we join you guys afterward?” Peter asked them.

“Sure,” Remus smiled.

“ _Or_ I heard about some secret door that leads straight to the kitchens. We could just all head there, you guys get breakfast, and Remus and I a snack.”

“You can’t avoid the great hall forever you know,” he overheard Remus whisper into Sirius’ ear. Sirius simply dismissed him though as he turned to Peter and James with a smile and pleading eyes.

“Sure. Sounds fun,” James shrugged smiling back.

* * *

Sirius led his friends through the entrance hall, and down a marble staircase to the school’s basement. He turned right and walked through one of the great oak doors. The corridor was brightly lit with torches with many paintings lining the walls depicting food. There was a suit of armor at the entrance of the corridor and a few barrels which laid against the wall in one of the nooks on the right-hand side.

“Where did you even find this place?” James asked

“One of the Hufflepuffs told me about it. Said it was a good place to hide out. Their common room is over there past the barrels,” he pointed over to them in the nook. Sirius continued walking over till he reached a painting with a gigantic bowl of silver fruit. He felt awkward as he reached over to the pear how the Hufflepuff instructed him and tickled it. The pear shifted into a large green door handle at this. Each of the four boys stood in shock as Sirius pulled the handle and opened up the painting stepping inside to the Kitchens.

The room stood with high ceilings almost as tall as the ones in the great hall and brass pots and pans pilled by the stone walls. At the end of the room stood a massive brick fireplace. There were four massive tables much like the ones in the great hall as well. House-elves were working around the clock preparing food and setting it on the table before making it disappear.

“Woah,” Peter breathed. They all looked around the room in awe taking in the sights before Remus approached one of the house-elves.

“Excuse me,” he tapped one of the house-elves on the shoulder causing them to quickly turn around and face the boys who had entered. “My friends and I were hoping to avoid the great hall. Do you have any leftovers from breakfast, by chance?” Sirius noted how the house elf’s face lit up as he quickly nodded his head and went to retrieve food for them. Kreacher was never so eager to serve Sirius.

When the house-elf came back, he came floating plates of freshly made food for the four. He ushered them over to a corner and conjured some bean bag chairs for them to sit on as well as a table to set the food. The house-elf smiled brightly at the boys as he served their food. Sirius watched in shock as Remus started up a casual conversation with the house-elf.

“Thank you so much. I’m Remus, this is Sirius, James, and Peter.” The house-elf simply smiled at the boy, prompting Remus to actually ask, “What’s your name?”

“Zolbry, sir”

“Nice to meet you Zolbry. The food tastes delicious.”

“Thank you, master Remus. Zolbry is happy to hear such compliments.”

Sirius watched as Remus held the conversation with the house-elf in shock. It was clear Remus never encountered one before, but the happiness apparent on the house elf’s face was the most surprising. Remus invited Zolbry to join them, the house-elf was hesitant but joined anyway. Sirius finally looked over to James to see the surprise on his face as well, which helped Sirius not feel as bad for the way he reacted to the situation.

* * *

They left the kitchen after breakfast and walked around the castle corridors aimlessly. They watched as the portraits interacted and tried to see if the staircases moved in a pattern, which they couldn’t find. As they finally headed back to the common room, they passed a huge tapestry. Sirius remembered that on the way to the common room they walked underneath a tapestry. What if that tapestry wasn’t the only one hiding a passage behind it though? Sirius paused and turned around back to the tapestry.

“Sirius, where are you going?” James asked the boy. Sirius ignored the question and just continued making his way to the tapestry. He tugged on it to look underneath. Lo and behold, behind the tapestry sat an oak door much like all the others in the school.

“Mind helping me with this?” Sirius asked the other boys as they stared at him in confusion. James eventually shrugged and joined Sirius as they lifted the tapestry.

“Is that a door?” Peter asked the other boys. Sirius nodded eagerly as he reached for the door handle. That was when he felt Remus’ hand grab onto his wrist and tell him to stop.

“What? Why?” Sirius asked.

“The tapestry was probably there, blocking the door from sight for a _reason_ , Sirius. You don’t know what lies behind it. It could probably lead to some room with a scary blood-thirsty monster or something for all we know.”

“And _maybe_ it leads to some amazing hidden secret of Hogwarts,” James tried to persuade the boy.

“Fine, but if we die, it’s your guys’ fault,” He told James and Sirius. The latter two grinned brightly.

“Open it,” James said practically bursting at the seams in the excitement of what was behind the door. Sirius did what was asked. It was pitch black inside. He reached his hand inside to feel what was beyond the door’s threshold. He felt nothing but decided to scare his friends instead. He pretended something grabbed hold of his arm and screamed. The others all screamed as well. Sirius then pretended to be dragged into the tunnel pulling against the mysterious force grabbing him. He went into the hallway and fell silent as he listened to his roommates all scream, while he tried not to laugh. Eventually, though, Sirius couldn’t stay quiet and began laughing hysterically before popping out of the hallway facing the boys.

“Not cool man,” James shook his head at the boy in relief that he was safe before splitting into a grin.

“You guys coming or what?” Sirius asked them all.

“Absolutely not,” Remus told the boy with a cold laugh.

“Oh, come on, it was a _joke_ , Re. I’m fine. Come on, let’s see where it leads,” Sirius complained as Remus adamantly shook his head no. “I know you're curious too, so you might as well join.”

Remus finally sighed as he made his way towards the door. James began passing through the threshold before noticing Peter was still waiting outside.

“Are you coming Peter?” he asked the timid boy.

“Oh, uh – yeah,” the blonde-haired boy told them as he reluctantly followed behind Remus through the door into the secret passage.

“Can’t see anything in here,” James remarked.

“Lumos,” Remus said as he waved his wand in the pitch-black darkness surrounding them. The tip of his wand lit up brightly.

The boys all looked around at their surroundings. The corridor was covered in dust and there were cobwebs all over. Sirius looked at the stone walls on either side of him as they led off into the darkness.

“Well, that came in handy. Mind teaching me?” James asked. They sat there for a bit until they were all able to successfully copy Remus’ instructions and cast the spell on their own. Once they had they each continued walking through the corridor until they reached the end.

It was a dead-end with a staircase that led up to the ceiling, but ultimately nowhere. Sirius wasn’t willing to accept this though and began to walk up the steps. He pressed his hands upon the ceiling with his wand lit in his mouth holding it. He felt the ceiling move slightly.

“Give me a hand?” The Black heir asked the other boys. James walked up the stairs and pushed with Sirius. They felt as the ceiling moved back, and a little bit of light flooded in from the other side. Dirt fell through the crack as well. Remus decided to join the two and push, and the ceiling became a trap door, opening above them into the bright daylight. They each walked up the remainder of the stairs and into it.

“Where are we?” Sirius heard as Peter asked. They all waited for their eyes to adjust to the change of light as they looked around for clues as to where they were.

“Isn’t that the castle over there?” James asked as he pointed over to the large building in front of them in the distance.

“I think we’re by the boathouse,” Remus told the boys as he pointed to the building to the left of them a little way away. Sirius looked back towards where they exited from. It looked like just another one of the rocks from the mountain Hogwarts sat upon. He couldn’t even see a door that they exited from beneath. Sirius must not have been the only one trying to find the door because he heard as Remus said _shit_ under his breath. Sirius looked back up at the boy meeting his face as they both held back a smile.

“Well, fancy a walk to the boathouse anyone?” James asked as he made his way walking over the rocky hill to the main path that led from the boathouse to Hogwarts. They all followed James back to the boathouse.

“Why didn’t we just take the path back up to the school again?” Remus questioned the two boys as they looked around.

“Do we have any reason to be back at the school right now?” James asked Remus who stood in the doorway stubbornly. “Come on, help us look,” he told Remus as he waved him over.

“And what are we looking for exactly?” Peter asked as he examined one of the ropes tying the boat to the dock.

“Anything out of place. Anything that could be hiding more to it,” Sirius explained to the boys.

“more secret passages?” Peter questioned them hesitantly. He looked to James who just nodded at the boy, encouraging him to continue searching.

Remus stood in front of a portrait on one of the walls and began examining it.

“The entrance to the common room and kitchens was through one of the paintings, right?” he pulled on the frame of the man’s portrait opening it to reveal another secret passage. The other boys all watched in fascination while Remus smiled admiring his find. They all excitedly stepped inside and cast Lumos to see their way back. They each made bets as to where it would lead until they arrived at the grand staircase.

* * *

It was now five o’clock and the boys finally decided to head back to Gryffindor tower having spent most of the day exploring the castle. Sirius watched as the boy saw the time and his eyes went wide. He quickly made an excuse, saying he had to go send an owl out to his parents, before hastily leaving the three in the dorm alone.

“Wonder what that was about,” James pondered to the two left behind with him.

Peter simply shrugged saying he had no idea and Sirius joined the blonde-haired wizard. He remembered the boy had told him he had plans tonight, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t be going to send a letter right now. And why did it have to be right now anyway? He lied. Remus clearly lied to them, but it wasn’t Sirius’s place to tell the other two about the lack of honesty he was sharing.

The other two may not have known Remus was lying but Sirius knew an act when he saw one. Remus was obviously trying to hide something from them. Sirius knew what that was like though and decided to leave it be. He wouldn’t like it if someone investigated his world of deceit, so he wouldn’t do it to Remus. He’d just have to act like he had no clue what was going on, but that wouldn’t be hard for him. After all, Sirius Black was an actor, and Hogwarts, his stage..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The one secret passage that leads from behind the tapestry and to the rocks a walk away from the boathouse was not part of cannon, whereas the one leading from the portrait of Percival Pratt to the grand staircase is.


	11. A Good Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus Lupin's POV of September 4th, 1971. It's his first full moon at Hogwarts.  
> Sirius Black POV of September 5th, 1971 When Remus returns from the hospital wing.

Remus Lupin felt terrible. He told madam Pomfrey he’d meet her in the hospital wing at five o’clock so that he’d have time to eat dinner with her before heading out to Hogsmeade. He liked to think he was a punctual person, but he wouldn’t be making madam Pomfrey believe that after tonight.

How could he have lost track of time so badly? Remus sprinted through the halls as he tried to find his way over to the witch’s area of the castle. He made sure yesterday to know exactly where to find it so he wouldn’t be late coming.

‘How ironic?’ Remus darkly thought to himself.

Remus finally arrived in the hall of the hospital wing. He stopped his run and caught his breath before opening the doors. She was in her office going through papers and eating her dinner when Remus knocked on the door.

“I’m glad you made it. Here,” she told the boy handing her one of the plates of food she had delivered by the house-elves for him so he wouldn’t miss dinner. She wasn’t upset with Remus in the slightest all she did was give the boy a pitying smile. Remus didn’t know which would feel worse.

“Thank you,” he said before sitting down at one of the chairs by her desk and beginning to eat. He hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, he was so busy exploring the halls with his friends. Madam Pomfrey watched the boy as he began eating, making Remus feel self-conscious. Was he eating too fast? Too slow? Remus didn’t feel like he was scarfing anything down, but was he supposed to? He felt so awkward until madam Pomfrey finally took her eyes off the boy and began focusing on her stack of papers.

Remus felt his shoulders finally relax as he took his next bite. When he finished, he looked up to madam Pomfrey.

“Right, shall we get going then?” she asked the boy, maintaining her pity smile.

Remus nodded and they both made their way out of the hospital wing and to the grounds. Remus walked behind her as madam Pomfrey led the way over to the whomping willow. She levitated a twig over and threw it at the tree’s knot before walking the boy down the secret passage.

“How many secret passages are there at Hogwarts?” Remus asked the healer.

“You’ve been exploring, have you?” she asked. Remus simply nodded causing the medi-witch to smile. It wasn’t pitying this time though, but more amused. “I’m not sure exactly. I remember my friends and I went I used to be students. We found a couple of secret rooms in the castle, but I always imagined there were more than we ever knew of.”

“My roommates and I found a few today. That’s why I was late. We lost track of the time. Sorry,” he admitted guiltily. The healer didn’t seem to look down at the boy in disappointment though. She looked at him in fondness, like she couldn’t blame him. Like she had been distracted by Hogwarts' hidden gems as well.

“Don’t worry too much about it, mister Lupin. You’ve hardly been here a week, Merlin knows when I was your age…” she trailed off as the nostalgia hit her, taking her down memory lane. “besides, we’re still perfectly on schedule,” she reminded Remus.

When Madam Pomfrey and Remus arrived at the shrieking shack she directed the boy over to one of the bedrooms. The sun was now beginning to set. Remus found that he wasn’t the only one nervous about what would happen tonight. Madam Pomfrey kept rubbing Remus’ shoulder. She told him over and over how he was going to be ok. How she’d be here first thing in the morning.

“I’ll be here first thing in the morning. When the sun’s up, I’ll be here, ok? Don’t worry, it’ll all be ok. You’ll be fine,” she repeated once more. “I have to go now, but –”

“You’ll be here come morning, I know,” he told the healer as he forced a smile. She smiled back before turning around and walking to the door. Remus watched as she reached the threshold and faced him once more. She smiled before disappearing into the darkness walking her way back to Hogwarts.

Remus sat on the bed until he finally felt the sun go down. His insides began to be pulled apart. And his bones shifted into new positions. He screamed in pain. It hurt so badly. Remus lived dreading this day every month. But no matter how much he dreaded it; it always came. Each time worse than the last, and tonight was no different. Eventually, his screams changed into a howling, and that was the last he remembered.

* * *

Remus woke up the next morning in the hospital wing. The curtains around his bed were all shut, and he heard as madam Pomfrey walked around the hospital wing. He heard as her footsteps became heavier as she neared until the curtains drew open as she entered. She had potion bottles in her hands, bandages, and a frown on her face. She looked at the boy in pain, seeing how injured he was. Remus was hardly awake enough to realize how hurt he must have been. He tried to lift his arm, grimacing in pain as it lifted. It was covered in blood and a huge scratch ran down the side of his forearm up a little past his elbow. He tried to sit up to see the rest of the damage when madam Pomfrey grabbed hold of him and helped him up.

“I’ll get you all healed up. It’ll be ok,” she said trying to convince herself more than Remus. He looked down to see his chest covered in little scars, each of which ran deep, all over. “Here, drink this. It should help with the pain,” she told Remus uncorking a vial with a potion inside and handing it to him. He tried his best to smile and look grateful to the healer as he accepted. “Fair warning, it tastes awful. So best to down it quickly.”

Remus heeded her instruction and poured it down his throat swallowing it. He made a face at the terrible aftertaste left in his mouth.

“I’ll go fetch you some water, we got a few more of those today,” she said before opening the curtains and sliding through them, letting them fall behind her. She made a speedy return with a glass of water handing it to the boy as she cleaned the wounds on his arm.

“I can’t heal the cuts with magic, I’m sorry. I’ll clean them up, but we’ll have to wait for your body to do the rest.” She finished bandaging his arm before heading to the cuts on his chest. Once she finished bandaging all of the cuts, she gave him a couple more potions. “Here, this one should help with speed the recovery up a bit, and this one will give you a bit of time to rest.” Remus downed each of the potions. Madam Pomfrey helped Remus lay back down before he drifted off.

By the time Remus woke up, it had been hours. Madam Pomfrey walked in with a meal for him setting it on the table.

“Wouldn’t want you to miss lunch. Eat. I’ll check on your wounds, see if we’re making any progress.” Remus simply obeyed the healer and dug into his food, thanking her. He flinched a few times from her messing with his wounds while she worked to change his bandages and check the healing.

“Looks like we’re making a good amount of progress. You should be good to leave tonight so long as you take it easy and rest.” Remus was thrilled with the information. It usually took a few days before he was able to recover. Remus smiled as big as he could without hurting himself, causing the healer to copy. When Remus finished eating and madam Pomfrey his wounds, she handed him another sleeping potion, and he was out for hours once more.

He woke an hour before curfew. Madam Pomfrey had robes set out for him as well as a couple of potions for Remus to help manage the pain and aid his recovery lying on the table beside him. He got dressed and placed the potion bottles into his pockets before opening the curtains. When he did so, he saw her aiding another student who lied in bed appearing to have been in a magical accident. It was one of the second or third-year Hufflepuffs. He had a busted open lip and what appeared to be a concussion or at least a headache guessing by the way he was holding his head. Madam Pomfrey must have noticed as he neared the exit because she turned over and looked at him.

“Mister Lupin, you should be good to go. Be sure to come back before classes and I’ll switch out your bandages,” she gave a soft smile before turning back to the boy. “Nasty knock-back jinx you’ve been hit with mister McKinnon, but no worries. We’ll have you patched up in no time. Now, why were you hit with one? That I’d like to know,” she spoke to the boy. Remus didn’t stay to hear what happened as the doors to the hospital closed behind him.

He began making his way over to the Gryffindor common room, taking his time walking up all the stairs. Remus may have slept most of the day, but he still felt extremely drained. Remus was exhausted by the time he made it to the fat lady’s portrait.

“Bowtruckle,” he told her. The portrait opened and Remus made his way inside. He barely managed to get himself up the staircase to the dorms, he was far too weak to do. He managed anyway. He couldn’t wait to open the dorm room door and head to bed. He didn’t want to stand any longer. He made his way over to the door and heard his roommates’ voices shouting excitedly. If it weren’t for the sleeping potions, he’d doubt his ability to get any sleep with that rambunctious group of people.

Remus opened the door to see James, Sirius, and Peter all jumping on their beds pretending to cast spells with their wands. James shot one at Sirius and he dramatically fell back onto the bed grabbing his side pretending to be in pain. Remus rolled his eyes at their shenanigans before walking in. James must have noticed Remus walk through the door because he excitedly jumped off the bed and made his way over to the boy.

“You missed it! Marlene’s brother got in a duel with one of the Slytherins,” James animatedly told Remus.

“Malfoy,” Sirius clarified as he got up off his bed.

“Yea, Malfoy. Anyway, they were firing spells left and right at each other in the trophy room. Malfoy was on the aggressive side, while Matt was more defensive. He held his own for a good while with shields, but one of the knock-back jinxes Malfoy fired hit square in the chest, and Bam! Matt flew backward into the wall. It was so painful to watch. Marlene and one of his friends ended up having to walk him to the hospital wing,” James animatedly told Remus. “Hey, where were you anyway?”

Remus gave his best smile to the boy as he explained what the werewolf had missed ignoring his question as he continued making his way over to the bed. He didn’t even have the energy to get changed as he got up into the bed opening the curtains and sitting down. He unloaded the potions from his pockets and placed them on his nightstand. He rubbed his eyes before grabbing one of the sleeping draughts and drinking it. Not long after he took it, he felt the fatigue set in and sank into his bed and closed his eyes.

* * *

Sirius watched as his roommate entered the room. He looked like he had just gone through hell. He was exhausted and he was walking with a limp. James was too excited to notice, unlike Sirius. Sirius saw as the boy forced himself to smile at James’s story. Chances are he wasn’t even listening. When Sirius looked at the boy’s eyes, they were empty. He was paying no attention to what was going on around him. Remus watched as he sluggishly made his way to his bed. Remus hadn’t even bothered to change out of his robes.

“Hey, how about we just let him rest?” he asked James.

The messy-haired boy looked at Sirius then Remus again, noting the exhaustion evident on the boy before nodding and backing off.

“Maybe in the morning,” James said, and it was Sirius’ turn to nod. James turned and headed over to his bed, but Sirius stood watching Remus. He watched as the boy pulled out potions from his pockets.

‘Why were there so many? Where did he even get them?’ Sirius thought to himself.

He observed the boy as he downed one of them and set it back on the nightstand. It wasn’t long before he drifted off into unconsciousness. Sirius decided to help the boy out and close his curtains. He looked back over to the nightstand and fought with himself as to whether or not he should see what they were. Sirius didn’t want to pry, but his curiosity was getting the best of him. Eventually, it won out. He looked over to Peter and James who were busy in conversation. They were paying no attention to him, so he read the labels. They were sleeping draughts and pain relievers.

‘What happened? Why was he in so much pain?’ Sirius asked himself before opening his trunk and grabbing his pajamas to change into. He got ready for bed before slipping into his covers and closing his curtains. Sirius couldn’t help but sit there in his bed pondering the mystery that was Remus Lupin. There was so much he had no clue about when it came to the boy. Nothing ever added up. Lies and deceit were Sirius’ forte, and he could spot another’s from a mile away. Remus Lupin was hiding something. At first, Sirius was willing to just let him, but after seeing the pain-relieving potions, Sirius didn’t know if that was a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We don't quite see it, but the boy Remus sees in the hospital wing was Mathew McKinnon. He's one of Marlene's older brothers who is a Hufflepuff third year. He got into an argument with a couple of Slytherins, causing Lucius Malfoy (Slytherin prefect) to get involved. Matt challenges Malfoy to a duel and loses pretty badly.


	12. It's Mere Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Potter and Sirius Black's POV of the morning of Thursday, September 9th, 1971.

James Potter was beyond excited when he spotted the notice in the Gryffindor common room that flying lessons would be starting on Thursday. Sure, he wasn’t exactly eager to be spending time with the Slytherins, but he’d finally get to hop on a broom again. Every person has their happy place, and for James, it was riding a broom with his father or the McKinnons. Whenever James felt down, he’d always hop on a broom and ride. Life was always far more fun when flying. Back home his father, the McKinnons, and he had always flown together, but since coming to Hogwarts, James hadn’t had the chance to. First-years weren’t even allowed to bring their brooms. That’s not how it always was though, apparently that rule had only changed a few years ago after some huge accident occurred.

James was so full of vim and vigor for quidditch, but he was one of the only few. His roommates hadn’t even ridden a broom before. Sirius and Peter, who grew up in the wizarding world admitted to having never really thought about riding before, While Remus claimed he was a bit too accident prone for his father to have ever taught him. James was quick to believe it, after all, only a couple of nights ago he was in the hospital wing and wouldn’t confess to how he’d even gotten there. James asked the boy constantly, but Remus never caved in.

“That embarrassing, huh?” James joked to the boy at breakfast one day. Remus visibly forced a smile on his face and a laugh before getting up to leave. James learned not to push him any further on the subject. Evidently, it was a touchy one.

Out of all of the Gryffindor first-years, he and Marlene were the only two to ever ride a broom and love it. Two others claimed to have mounted a broom, but they both talked horribly of their experience.

At breakfast on Thursday, flying was all anybody was talking about. Most were joking about how they were going to make a fool of themselves, others talked about how nervous they were, and only a few like James and Marlene were eager.

“Here he is, the soon-to-be youngest player on a Hogwarts quidditch team in all of history!” Marlene jokingly announced as she walked up to him faking audience noises of cheering and shouting. He merely laughed at his friend’s antics as she made her way over. Marlene ruffed the boy’s hair before sitting down in the seat beside James and stealing his bacon.

“Paws off, Marls. Get your own bacon!” he told her smacking her hand as she brought the piece to her mouth. The bacon snapped in half and fell onto the great hall’s floor.

“Hey, look what you did. Now neither of us gets to enjoy it,” Marlene looked at the boy in disappointment, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head. James cracked a grin.

“Better no one than you,” he told her nudging the girl’s shoulder. “You excited for flying lessons today?”

“Oh, dear. Is that today? Already? Ugh, I’m dreading it,” she told him in mock seriousness, before breaking into a grin, “Of course I’m excited. I’d ask you, but I’m pretty sure all of Gryffindor knows just _how_ excited you’ve been for this.” James shrugged and flashed the girl a grin in return before they joined the rest of James’s friends in eating.

“Does this mean you’ll be joining us today Marlene?” Sirius asked the energetic girl across the table from him.

“If that’s ok with you all. I love flying but if I’m not looking towards the whole, _‘beaten by a girl’_ thing. I thought if I were around you, I might not get so many comments. You know, because nobody outshines the _legendary James Potter_ on a broom,” she ended jokingly.

“Marls, there’s no shame in being better than a guy at something outside a kitchen, but you’re always welcome to hide in my shadow of greatness,” James informed her.

“Yea, maybe in Gryffindor, but last I checked flying classes were with Slytherins as well. Merlin knows Lestrange and Rosier don’t share the same views.”

“They’re still bothering you?” James asked her. She simply nodded and before James could ask any follow-up questions, she urged the boy to look at Sirius across from them. Sirius was now looking down at his plate uncomfortably. James had to remind himself that Sirius used to be close with both of them.

It was a good time for the mail to come through since the atmosphere was now tense with awkward silence. The owls flew over to their owners delivering letters and packages. James watched as the Black family’s owl with dark black feathers and a scornful look swooped down and dropped a letter on Sirius’ plate. Sirius had only received one letter so far, but James knew it wasn’t a good thing, seeing as how most parents constantly sent their kids letters or care-packages with sweets or new sweaters. He watched as Sirius sighed and dropped his tense shoulders to pick up the letter. He read the name before closing his eyes, taking a breath, and putting the letter away for later.

“You ok?” Peter asked Sirius from beside James. James and the rest of their group, including Marlene, watched as Sirius planted a smile on his face, grabbed a piece of bacon from his plate, and responded.

“Of course. I’d just rather read it when I have time to send a response. I actually have to head back to the dorm. I forgot something. Meet up with you guys later?”

James saw through the smile though. He knew the Black boy was upset, whether it be by the letter or the previous conversation, or both, he didn’t know. Sirius grabbed his book bag, flashed the group a smile, and then headed out nonetheless. James learned pretty early on that Sirius never opened up when it came to his family or his life before coming here. Unlike most elite pure-bloods, Sirius didn’t boast about all that he had, he simply just tried to hide under the radar. James noticed how he must not have been the only one watching Sirius as he left the great hall because following behind him was a group of Slytherins in their typically green-clad robes and their wands hidden but at the ready. There was Malfoy, the prefect, Wilkes, both of the Lestrange Brothers, and Evan Rosier.

James leaned into Marlene’s ear before whispering,

“I don’t think you’re the only one having issues with Lestrange and Rosier,” she glanced up at the group making their way out.

“I thought they were friends.”

“As did I,” James swallowed as he debated whether or not to follow.

* * *

Sirius walked out of the Great Hall knowing who had followed him. He walked out the doors and took a left. He knew exactly where to go. He walked until he was cornered in an empty corridor. He knew it was a dead-end, but that was kind of the point. He wanted to make the others feel bigger, more powerful. Like a predator, while Sirius played the part of the prey. Sirius wasn’t going to be the prey though, for he was the predator, playing with his food before eating it. Aggressive mimicry is what it was called. Sirius put on a face of panic like he had just realized how trapped he was as the five boys emerged from the corner turning in to face him.

“Well, well. How’s it been, Black? Or are we even allowed to call you that anymore? Haven’t been disowned, have you?” Rabastan Lestrange, a fifth-year like Malfoy asked. Sirius put on a ‘brave’ face when responding in an unaffected way, playing with his food.

“Disowned for being placed in the wrong house? That seems a bit extreme.”

“No, but for fraternizing with those blood-traitors and half-breeds,” Lucius said as he watched as Sirius’ face faltered encouraging him to continue. “Did you think word wouldn’t get back to them about that?” Sirius faked a stutter as he responded, slowly backing further away into the corner as the boys closed in on him.

“I-It’s called survival, you dolt.”

“That it is,” Lucius told him as he waved his wand in Sirius’ face, “That it is.”

“Locomotor Mortis,” Wilkes said under his breath causing Sirius’ legs to bind together.

“Finally, someone who knows how to have a little bit of fun,” Sirius laughed at the boys. Their face faltered for a split second. They hadn’t anticipated that response. During the time they were caught off guard Sirius cast a counter curse on his leg before casting a snake summoning spell “serpensortia,” and “oppugno.” A serpent flew from the tip of Sirius’ wand and sped towards the boys attacking them violently.

“Finite Incantatem!” Evan Rosier shouted, causing the serpent to disappear.

“Diffindo!” One of the Lestrange brothers cast towards Sirius. Sirius watched as the pool began to run down his left shoulder where he was cut. It hurt so badly, but the adrenaline prevented him to focus on it any longer as he cast his next spell

“Ebublio!” and just like that, the Lestrange boy was trapped in a large bubble. Sirius then realized how wrong he was. He was not the predator. He’d only been at Hogwarts for a week, and he was battling upperclassmen. He stood no chance. At this point, he was now on the defensive. Sirius didn’t know many defensive spells though. He learned every spell by watching his father casting them, or in the books in his father’s study. Orion Black never played defensive; he was always playing the aggressive game. He was always the predator.

“Everte Statum!” Lucius shouted and Sirius was thrown backward hitting his head violently against the wall. That was the last thing he remembered before everything went to black.

* * *

James was searching the halls trying to find where Sirius wound up. Then he saw as the group of Slytherins emerged from the corner talking and laughing.

“What a fool, to take on all of us. He wouldn’t stand a chance even one-on-one.” One of the Lestrange brothers commented.

Sirius. They were talking about Sirius. James ducked behind a corner and watched them as they talked before one of the younger in the group, Evan Rosier spoke up.

“Hey, I left something over in the library from yesterday. I’m going to go pick it up,” He said as he made eye contact with James. He pleaded with the boy with his eyes to follow him before looking away and walking down the hall away from the rest of the group.

James debated whether or not to follow. It could very well be a trap and James wasn’t ready for that. But when Rosier looked at him, it was like he was begging for help, and a friend or not, James wasn’t about to leave someone in need. As he walked to catch up with Rosier, he just kept mumbling to himself.

“Way to go James. Let the _Slytherin_ lead you to your death, because of a stupid hero complex. Bravo.” James must have gotten close enough to the boy because he looked over in worry to James,

“I’m not going to _kill_ you. But we need to hurry, I don’t know how bad the damage is.”

“Sirius?”

The boy nodded before breaking into a jog down the corridors until finally they came across a bloodied and bruised Sirius who was unconscious. He was tied in ropes hanging upside down with a piece of parchment stuck to him reading a nasty phrase:

_Blood-traitors be warned_

It was like something out of an old pirate book. James sucked in a breath before running over to Sirius. He looked back at Rosier now in anger.

“You did this? How could you do this?”

Rosier clenched his jaw, but ignored James’s comment, instead, focusing on undoing the ropes around Sirius letting him free.

“He put up one hell of a fight. Nobody expects a first-year to know so much magic. Scared the shit out of us for a good second, but in the end, Lucius won. He always does.”

Eventually, he was able to undo the ropes and Sirius began to fall. James caught him in his arms then turned him right side up again sitting him on the ground. James tried his hardest to wake his friend up, but nothing was working.

“Come on, we need to get him to Madam Pomfrey. She’ll know what to do,” Rosier told James. The two lifted the dead weight of Sirius holding him in between the both of them on their shoulders as they walked towards the hospital wing. When they arrived, madam Pomfrey took one look at Sirius’ limp body and went into a tizzy. She quickly urged them to set him down on a bed before bombarding them with a million questions as she frantically checked for a pulse and surveyed the damage done to the boy.

James watched as Evan described the events to madam Pomfrey. He didn’t lie once to her but made sure to omit certain truths, like how he, himself, was involved in what had happened.

“… and I watched as a couple of older students cast an incarcerous on him tying him up in the hall and hanging him there for all to see. I couldn’t do anything until they left, eventually, I found Potter here, who quickly helped me in getting him down and here.”

“And you don’t know who these students were?” Madam Pomfrey asked skeptically to the boy.

“No, ma’am. I’ve only been here a week. It’s hard to learn everyone’s names in that time.” Rosier finally lied. Madam Pomfrey sighed at the news but got up from Sirius’ bedside to fetch some potions and begin working on healing the boy.

“Will he be ok?” James asked.

“Yes, dear. By the sounds of it, mister Black only seems to have a concussion and a bad shoulder. He should be good to go by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? But he’ll miss flying classes?”

“Yes, well. Healing takes time.” She responded curtly before shooing both of the boys out of the hospital wing.

* * *

The two of them began walking away from the hospital wing.

“You’re a terrible person,” James insulted the boy. He was mad. How could he just stand there and do nothing if he knew it to be wrong?

“There was nothing I could do. It wouldn’t have mattered. It’s a bunch of upperclassmen. They’d chew him up and spit him back out with or without me fighting beside him. And either way, Sirius doesn’t have to go back to the same dorm as them at the end of the day, whereas I do. Sirius would understand that. It’s mere survival, Potter.”

“And Marlene too. You’re terrible to her as well.”

Evan stopped and spun around violently at James now, almost losing his top.

“What do want from me? You want me to lie to her? Encourage the girl? Tell her she stands a chance in life because she’s fair? Life isn’t fair. She won’t amount to anything. It doesn’t matter how much harder she works. It’s all for nothing.”

“Don’t act like you’re doing it for her own good.”

“Don’t act like you’re Sirius’ only friend then. You’re not. _I_ was the one to warn him of the attack before it happened. _I_ was the one who didn’t fight him. _I_ was the one to go back after the damage was done and go help him. And tomorrow when I see him again. _I’ll_ be the one yelled at for helping him, and not focusing on myself. Not _you_. You don’t even know the first thing about him. You don’t know it’s all just a show. That he’s lying constantly whenever he’s around you, forcing a smile, laughing when all he is, is hurting. Don’t act like you’re his friend because you’re not.” Rosier quickly stormed off after making his points leaving James standing alone in the hallway shaken.

He was taken back by it all. Was it all just a show? Was Sirius only ever acting like he was happy. Why would he lie? James replayed the one line over and over in his mind.

‘It’s mere survival.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So happy Birthday to Remus Lupin! Sorry there wasn't much of him this chapter, it's upsetting how that worked out, but happy birthday nonetheless. He would have been 61 years old today, had he not passed in the Battle of Hogwarts.
> 
> My favorite Remus Lupin quote:  
> "Severus, don't be a fool..."  
> Fun Fact about Remus Lupin:  
> Remus Lupin was born on a Lunar eclipse.


	13. Nah, She Doesn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short bit Remus Lupin's POV and then James Potter's POV of the afternoon of September 9th, 1971.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is heavily influenced by the events which occur in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: "The Midnight Duel" as to make for some parallels between the Harry Potter books as well as the Marauders' journey at Hogwarts during their first year.

Remus watched as James entered the dormitory. He was aggravated but in deep thought as well. Sirius didn’t follow in behind him.

“Did you find him?” Peter asked from his desk.

“Yea, he’s in the hospital wing now. He’ll be fine, but he’s out till tomorrow.”

“ _fucking hell_ , it was that bad?” Remus looked at James concerned.

“Yea. I should have left sooner. Why did I even debate it? He needed me and I wasn’t there.” James vented to the others.

“It’s not your fault; you didn’t know it was going to be that bad.”

“No, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good. Fifth-years were attacking him, for Merlin’s sake!”

“Hey, it’s ok. He’s fine now. Pomfrey will fix him up.” Remus comforted the boy. He stood beside him and held his shoulders. James looked up at him.

“We need to get them back,” James announced with wheels spinning behind his eyes.

“James, no.”

“How?” Peter asked as he stood up from his desk chair and walked over to Remus and him.

“I don’t know, but they’re not going to get away with this.”

* * *

When three-thirty that afternoon came around, Remus, James, Peter, Marlene, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. The weather was great: clear and breezy. The grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the lawns towards the smooth flat lawn on the opposite side of Hogwarts’s grounds near the forbidden forest. Its trees all swayed darkly in the distance.

The Slytherins were already present with twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the grass. Not long after the Gryffindors had all arrived, so did Madam Hooch, their teacher. She sported short gray hair and had yellow eyes which resembled a hawk. She cut straight to the chase, skipping introductions.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Remus took one of the broomsticks in between Peter and James. He looked down at the broom nervous as ever for what disaster was about to happen. The broom was old and worn down with twigs sticking out just about everywhere.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP" everyone shouted.

James’s broom immediately jumped into his hand at once, as did Marlene’s. Only a few of the Slytherins were up on the first try as Remus looked around. His broom had merely rolled around on the ground., and Peter’s hadn’t moved at all. It took a bit, but after a few tries, Remus finally managed to get his broom into his hands. And a good thing too since he was just about to reach down on the ground and grab it, seeing how much time he felt wasted from calling it towards him when it wouldn’t respond.

Remus watched as Peter’s voice wavered in fear like all he wanted was to stay on the ground where it was safe. Maybe that’s how it works, you mustn’t be so afraid, you have to want to get off the ground for the brooms to respond. A while longer and Peter’s broom as well as the last of the stragglers from both houses were in the students’ hands.

Once everyone had the broom in their hands, Madam Hooch showed them how to properly mount the brooms so that they wouldn’t all go sliding off. She walked down the rows correcting everyone’s grips. She walked by one of the empty brooms and asked the students who were missing from the lesson.

“Sirius Black, ma’am. He’s in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey.” James informed her.

“Oh, dear. What a shame. Oh well, he’ll have to make it up later.”

Remus overheard as one of the Slytherins, Lestrange asked sarcastically underneath his breath,

“Wonder how he wound up there.” The Slytherins around him all began snickering to each other, except for one, who looked down at his shoes instead, in guilt. He looked over at James who had his fist clenched as if ready to fight them.

“Let it go, It’s not worth it.” Remus leaned over to James to whisper. James closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and nodded. He loosened his fist and hurriedly went back to gripping his broom as Madam Pomfrey came around to check.

“Afraid, you’re holding the broom wrong, dear.” She told Marlene before correcting her. James also caught the laughter coming from the Slytherins at Marlene’s mess up, as did Remus. Severus, Lestrange, and Rosier all exaggerated Marlene’s incorrect grip

“Is this correct? I’ve been riding for forever, you see,” Lestrange teased. His face forming a sneer at the girl as the other two laughed. Marlene simply stood with her head, looking unaffected. She was tapping her foot out of impatience towards the boys though, waiting for the next part of the lesson.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -- three – two -- one” she blew her whistle and James and Marlene Flew up into the air before landing smoothly. Remus followed not far behind them, but far more shakily. Peter behind him with a harder landing.

They spent the rest of flying class working on mounting a dismounting a broom, focusing on the task at hand while the Slytherins tried to get under their skin mocking them and insulting them mercilessly. Eventually, James and Marlene had enough of it. The next time they were to kick off the ground James and Marlene decided to fly a lap around the Slytherins as fast as they could to startle them. They watched laughing as Lestrange’s broom jerked hitting Severus’s. They both plummeted to the ground. Rosier was unaffected by their antics and easily dodged the two. Rosier watched his two housemates on the ground and fought the smirk on his face.

“MR. POTTER! MS. MCKINNON! Come back here, right now!” Madam Hooch yelled at them. Remus watched in fear for the both of them. “Off your brooms now, detention for the both of you.” She directed them. Both James and Marlene’s shoulders sank, and they put their brooms back on the grass and sat out for the rest of the lesson.

Remus looked back over to the two Slytherin boys sitting in the grass. Severus had his friend Lily right beside him checking on him asking if he was ok. Lestrange rolled his eyes at the girl as he made his way up on his own. Lily reached her hand to help pick Severus up. He grabbed on grateful for the help as he went to stand. Severus put pressure on his right foot and clenched his jaw in pain. He must have hurt his ankle.

When Madam Hooch was done scorning James and Marlene’s actions, she turned to check on the other two boys. She saw Severus in pain getting up and walked over to check the damage. She sat him down and bent over him to access the damage to Severus’ leg.

“Probably just a sprain, could be a break though. Come on, boy – it’s alright, up you get.” She told Severus before looking back over to the rest of the class, “None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are, or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear." She walked off the grass with Severus as he used the teacher as a crutch on the way over to the school.

“What is the deal with you?” Lily asked Marlene in anger after Severus and Madam Hooch were out of sight.

“Excuse me? My deal? Did you not hear everything they were saying?” Marlene fired back agitated.

“Doesn’t matter what they said, that was plain wrong, and you know it.” Lily frowned at the girl.

“Oh, of course, it doesn’t matter what they said. He’s your friend, so no matter whether it’s right or wrong you’re going to side with him, right? Just like on the train when he was the first to through insults, yet when Sirius fired back you up and left because _we were just awful_?” James said as he walked in between the girls taking a protective stance over Marlene.

Lily huffed at the boy and turned away in fury. The grounds were dead silent after that for a while before Rosier walked up to James. He leaned in and handed the boy something, whispering in his ear, “give this to Sirius for me? Also, I apologize in advance,” as Remus overheard. Both he and James looked a bit confused at the boy.

BAM – Rosier threw a right hook into James’s stomach.

“That’s for my friends.”

James was left struggling to find his breath.

“You manky git!” Marlene yelled at the boy before lunging at him. Rosier began to take a step back. Even though James was at a loss of breath, he managed to hold the girl back some. “Have you lost the plot? The hell is wrong with you?”

“Why don’t you catch me and find out?” Rosier taunted the girl as he picked up the two brooms on the ground and threw one to her to catch. She caught it and struggled against James to let go as the boy took off. “What? Scared you’re not as good as you claimed?” she shouted at her as he looked back.

“Marlene, no.” Remus finally intervened as he stepped in the way of Marlene holding her broom so she couldn’t take off. “Don’t sink down.”

“Remus get out of the way,” Marlene urged the girl. Remus only shook his head in disappointment at the girl but let go of her broom and stepped back.

“No! Marlene don’t you dare! You’ve already gotten into enough trouble for one day.” Lily yelled as Marlene mounted the broom and kicked it off the ground. Remus watched as she soared through the air, the wind blowing through her hair and robes billowing in the wind behind her.

Remus looked back around him on the ground for any sign of a teacher but instead found James holding his side as he bent down to grab a broom and join the girl. He looked up at Remus.

“I know she can handle herself, but I already didn’t help a friend once today. I’ve got to,” he tried to justify himself to Remus. Remus couldn’t argue with him.

“I’ll keep a watch for teachers. Don’t get caught,” he told James causing the boy to smirk back as he kicked off the ground as hard as he could speeding as fast as he could to catch up to Rosier and Marlene.

“They’re going to get themselves expelled,” Lily told Remus.

“Then let’s make sure nobody sees,” Remus informed the girl as he kept watch out for teachers.

“You’re just as bad as them.” Lily huffed.

Remus mocked being heartfelt as he placed his hand on his chest and sarcastically told the girl,

“I’m touched. That might just be the nicest thing someone’s ever told me.”

Lily rolled her eyes in annoyance but kept watch alongside Remus, nonetheless.

* * *

James felt the adrenaline build up and the blood pounding in his ears as he mounted the broom and kicked as hard as he possibly could against the ground and up. He soared through the air with the wind blowing through his hair. He was in his element now. He pulled the broomstick up a little to take it even higher off the ground as he made his way to catch up with Marlene and Rosier. He decided to come from behind and below the boy and spring up blocking his path causing Rosier to dive off to the right as Marlene. They sped full force towards the side of the castle. James came from the right, while Marlene from the left as they hoped to corner him.

They neared the side of the building and Rosier was still going full speed, unrelenting. It was a matter of who would break first. At last, second Rosier pulled them both in for a feint where he dived downwards to the grass before making his way over to the rest of the students. Luckily neither Marlene nor he fell for it and followed the boy as he almost took off everyone’s heads below. People were screaming in panic, others cheering in amusement, but James hardly noticed. He had one goal. Help Marlene get Rosier.

He saw as Marlene pulled out her wand and began firing an arrow-firing spell like the ones used by Appleby Arrow supporters at quidditch games. Arrows shot out of Marlene’s wand as she hoped, not to hit the boy, but corral him.

‘ _Brilliant as always_ ’ James thought to himself. No doubt one of her brothers taught her that.

Marlene’s plan was working great as she pushed the boy closer and closer to a dead end and forcing him to the ground for dismounting. Marlene followed the boy as he dismounted, getting off her broom as well with a bright grin.

“Not bad Rosier. I’d say by the time you’re in the fifth year you could probably make second on the team,” she insulted.

“Gave you a run for your money, didn’t I? And yet you still cheated with a partner and spells.” He gestured towards James as he dismounted his broom beside Marlene. He watched as the whole Gryffindor and Slytherin groups ran over to hear what was happening.

“I don’t recall any rules being made. So, isn’t it more like using my resources?”

“You slimy little –”

“What on earth is going on here?” Rosier was cut off with Professor McGonagall who arrived at the scene to see everyone where they weren’t supposed to be.

Everyone froze looking guiltily at their feet.

“Do not tell me you were riding unsupervised.” She looked sternly at James, Marlene, and Rosier who were the only ones holding brooms.

“Not at all Professor. If I recall correctly, Peeves showed up and chased us all over here. They just happened to be the only ones who brought their brooms with them,” Remus effortlessly lied on behalf of them to the professor. It was a good call with the Peeves card. Every professor seems to hate him, and it helps since the poltergeist can turn invisible at will so she wouldn’t be able to look for him.

“Is this true?” she asked everyone.

Most of the students eagerly nodded their heads in agreement and replied yes to her. Professor McGonagall left it at that.

“Alright, well, best head back over now,” she told the class before looking skeptically at Marlene, Rosier, and James. She didn’t quite know whether or not she was going to but the excuse, but she couldn’t argue with it. She walked back towards the entrance of the castle, and it was only after she was out of sight that everyone felt as though they were able to breathe.

“Nice job with Peeves, Remus,” James told his friend who merely shrugged.

“I don’t know how you were able to tell she was coming. She practically appeared out of nowhere.” Lily told him.

“I don’t think she’d bought the whole thing though. She’d too smart. And if she tells Madam Hooch about what happened, she’ll know for sure it was a lie because you two were meant to be sitting out.”

“I completely forgot about that. Bloody hell.” Marlene voiced to the others.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. What’s done is done.” James told her.

* * *

It seemed they were all in the clear though because, when Madam Hooch returned from the hospital wing, she didn’t address the situation or notice anything out of the norm. The Gryffindors split ways with the Slytherins upon entering the castle.

“Hey, I’m going to go visit Sirius and see if he’s up. I’ll meet you guys later.” James informed the group as the turn came up.

“You want company?” Remus asked

“No, I have something I need to talk to him about anyway,” James replied as he tried to force a smile before leaving.

James walked down the hall on the way to the hospital wing and when he felt there was nobody nearby, he finally took what Evan left in his pocket out. It was a letter addressed to Sirius. It almost looked like Sirius wrote it himself in his perfect script that was slightly slanted. He put it back in his pocket and continued on his way.

Once he arrived at the doors, he pushed them open to immediately hear bickering between Sirius and Severus. They were arguing. They hardly noticed when James entered and neared Sirius’ bed.

“Hey,” Sirius said with a huge grin on his face as he turned to face James.

‘It’s all just an act.’ Evan Rosier’s words repeated in his head. James returned a hello in a far less happy way, causing Sirius’ smile to falter.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” the Black boy asked with concern. Or was it concern? James didn’t know.

“I was told to give this to you,” he said as he pulled the letter from his pocket and handed it to the boy. Sirius looked down to see the letter then looked up at James in a mix of confusion and shock.

“I can explain,” Sirius begun, but James shook his head. James wanted so badly for the boy to open up to him but now wasn’t the right time. Besides, he probably doesn’t want to open up with the prying ears of Snivellus nearby anyway.

“We can talk later about that. How are you feeling?”

“Better. Madame Pomfrey said I could be out by dinner. Madam Hooch also paid a visit earlier with Snivellus. Apparently, a certain Gryffindor with a talent for trouble caused him to fall off his broom. Now he’s sitting a few beds over _like a complete wimp_ making a big deal out of _absolutely nothing_!” Sirius shouted loud enough for the Slytherin boy to hear.

“It’s fractured you Prat!” Severus shouted back.

“Oi! Shut it the both of you!” Madam Pomfrey shouted from her office at the boys. James and Sirius snickered under their breaths at this.

“As you can tell, I’ve had great company. And Madam Pomfrey loves having me here.” Sirius joked. Before James could respond though, Madame Pomfrey appeared from behind them.

“I didn’t mind you being here, but the shouting has to stop. My job is to cure migraines, mister Black, not place fellow students in a room where they’ll get one.”

James and Sirius both went wide-eyed in shock.

“How long has she been there?” Sirius mouthed to James. James simply shook his head and shrugged.

“Well mister Black, you should be good to go now. Enjoy dinner.” She smiled at the boy as she let him go.

“Fantastic. Will do. Thanks, Madam Pomfrey. See you soon?” Sirius asked the healer.

“I sure hope not,” she responded.

“Aw come on, I thought you ‘didn’t mind my company?’”

The healer rolled her eyes at the boy smiling.

“ _Out_ , mister Black.”

* * *

The two began walking out of the hospital wing together. Before They made it too far, Sirius led them down a quiet corridor.

“Where are we headed? Dinner’s that way?” James asked the boy.

“I told you I would explain, didn’t I?”

“I just thought you might want to rest some. Plan out what you were going to say first. You know, _rehearse_ some?”

Sirius sighed at the boy.

“The letter is from my brother. My parents weren’t so keen on my talking to him anymore – Bad influence, I guess. Rosier let me borrow his owl so I could talk to him without raising suspicions. He’s one of the few people I grew up with who’s even willing to talk to me, even if it has to be in secret.”

“So, you two are friends.”

“How much are you wanting to know?”

“Whatever it takes to know you don’t have to lie to me.”

“That’ll be hard. I’m an impulsive liar.”

“Yea, I’ve started picking up on that. You and Remus.”

“So, you’ve started picking up on his lies too?”

“They seem to come quite easily for him and you as well. Look, if you don’t want to open up, that’s fine. Just know I’m here if you want to. You want to pretend like everything is ok, make jokes and laugh, I’ll do just that. But if you need to talk, I won't judge, just listen. And I mean that.”

“Would you be mad if I took you up on that offer?”

“I’d be _filled with rage_ , yes,” James told the boy in mock seriousness.

Sirius smiled at that and the two of them walked back to the great hall for dinner.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime, is it ok if I hate Rosier still though? Or would that create a divide?” James asked only half-jokingly.

“You can hate him all you want.”

“Good, because he punched me in the gut today, and I’m still a bit sour about that.”

“He _punched_ you? I didn’t know he even knew how to.”

“Yea, me either. Not expecting that.” James told him as he held his stomach feeling the phantom pain of having the air knocked out of him once more. “You missed so much at flying lessons, by the way. It was great.” James told the boy on his left.

“Sounds like it. You guys will have to tell me all about it.”

Once they arrived at the great hall, everyone was circling James in amazement except for a few like his friends who were simply waiting for James and Sirius to make their way over, as well as a particular redhead who rolled her eyes at all of the fuss. James made his way over and finally sat down with Sirius across from him as they joined their friends. Marlene was sitting over with Remus and Peter. Sure, the girl occasionally joined them for breakfast, but never dinner.

“Lily’s still mad at me for what happened. Been giving me the silent treatment,” she informed him as she shook her head. She was upset about it. Even though Lily was a stickler for rules, while Marlene could care less, they had become somewhat friends over the week.

“I’m sorry, Marls. I hope I didn’t make things worse.”

“I think if anyone here made it worse it was probably me. I told her to not complain and keep watch out for teachers. Of course, I said it nicer, but that was the overall gist.” Remus told Marlene.

“Oh, geez, Remus.” James smiled at him.

“You _actually_ told her that?” Sirius laughed hysterically.

“Don’t worry about it. I doubt that has anything to do with it. She seemed amused just like anyone else when you got us out of trouble Remus. I think it’s more to do with what I said before mounting that bloody broom.”

“I’m sure she’ll be over it by the end of the night. I doubt she’d ever let something so trivial end a friendship so soon. She seems smarter than that. And if she isn’t, then that’s on her.”

“Yea, I guess. So, pretty boy, how was your vacation in the hospital wing?” Marlene asked turning back at Sirius.

“Quite relaxing actually. Until Snivellus showed. After that, it was a screaming match. Pretty sure I won though. Oh look, and there he is,” Sirius said as Severus walked through the hall to his seat. “Plonker,” Sirius muttered under his breath as he went to take a drink of pumpkin juice.

James and Remus both overheard this though and struggled to hold in a laugh.

“What?” Sirius asked acting as though he hadn’t said anything.

“Why do you guys even call him that anyway?” Marlene asked

“Whatever do you mean?” James asked in fake confusion, smiling at the girl.

“It’s mean,” she told James in real seriousness.

“Look at him and tell me he doesn’t look like a Snivellus,” James countered.

“Whatever. You’re a bunch of prats. You know that?” she told him in half-seriousness as she playfully shoved James in the side.

“Evans! If you wouldn’t mind retrieving your roommate that would be greatly appreciated. She’s driving me insane!” James laughed.

“Sod off, Potter!” Lily shouted from across the table a few seats down. James watched as his friends all broke into snickering around him before he broke into laughter as well.

“She hates you,” Sirius told him, but James just shook his head.

“Nah, she doesn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my favorite quotes from Harry Potter is the "She hated him!" "Nah, she didn't." So, you know I just had to make a reference to it.  
> I loved getting to do another chapter from James's POV. He's such a light character and every little thing he does I playful and fun.


	14. Behind a Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius Black POV of the marauders' first ever prank.  
> Remus Lupin POV of the prank aftermath.

Sirius sat at the end of his bed listening to James, Peter, and Remus telling him all that he had missed during today’s class. He listened as James waved his arms enthusiastically while he recounted the events. Peter jumped off the bed as if he was kicking off the ground with his broom reenacting what James did. Remus did his best Professor McGonagall impression, which everyone burst out laughing at, while James pretended to be Remus getting the whole class out of trouble. It was great. Sirius wished he was there for it. Madam Pomfrey was nice, but nobody wants to be in the hospital wing, missing out on all the fun.

“Wish I could have been there,” Sirius told them with a smile.

“As do I. Maybe then I wouldn’t have been punched so hard,” James joked in response.

“Ha! I do wish I was there for that,” Sirius laughed, while the boy grabbed a pillow off the bed and knocked him over the head with it.

“We’ve got to get them back,” James told him.

“James, no. You said it yourself, there were fifth-years,” Remus reminded the boy.

“Yea, we don’t know enough spells to take them on, even if it wasn’t five-on-one,” Sirius agreed before shuddering at the thought.

“Who says anything about fighting them?” James asked them in his best devil-may-care way.

“What exactly did you have in mind?” Sirius asked him, curious as to what was going on behind the boy’s eyes.

“Well, you’ve heard of a harmless prank, right?” James put the idea into all of their heads.

“And if it was done in public, they wouldn’t be able to react. It’s genius,” Sirius thought out loud.

“And how exactly do you plan on pranking them?” Peter asked curiously.

“Well, there’s a whole library filled with spell books,” Remus informed him.

* * *

For a whole week, the boys spent all of their free time looking up spells trying to find the perfect one to use on those awful Slytherins.

“What about this one?” Peter asked pushing a book in front of the other boys pointing to one of the spells.

“Oh, that one sounds cool,” Remus told the blonde-haired wizard.

“Yea, but it’s not _the_ spell. We need something that people won’t be able to ignore. Something to garner a reaction from those around them.” James reminded them.

“Besides, it needs to be something we can cast without them immediately being able to tell who it came from,” Sirius added.

“I got it!” Remus shouted before getting scorned by the librarian to be quiet. “Sorry,” he told Madam Pince.

“A mood ring spell?” Peter asked confused.

“Hear me out. If someone were to hypothetically be a victim to it, their face would showcase their emotions. Their _real_ emotions. Nobody would expect it.”

“It’s brilliant,” James told the boy in fascination.

“Must it be cast directly? Or could one, I don’t know, cast it on someone’s meal perhaps?” Sirius asked with a smirk growing on his face.

“Maybe not on food, but what about pumpkin juice?” Remus asked raising an eyebrow at the other boys.

* * *

The next day the boys all got up and dressed early. It was the first time since coming to Hogwarts that Sirius was eager to get ready and start the day. As soon as they were able to leave Gryffindor tower, the four of them hurried down to the kitchens.

Remus tickled the pear on the painting, and they all filed into the doorway. Sirius watched as Zolbry, one of the house-elves, face lit up at their arrival. Remus was the one who greeted him. They made small talk and Zolbry offered them all something to eat.

“Oh, no thanks, we’ll be dining in the great hall for breakfast this morning. However, I do wish to ask you a favor, Zolbry.”

“Zolbry is happy to help, sir.”

“Would you happen to know where particular students typically sit, Zolbry?” James chimed in.

“Zolbry knows where everyone sits. Mister James Potter sits over here,” he began running eagerly over to Gryffindor table pointing at one of the seats, “at Gryffindor table on the right of mister Peter Pettigrew and across from mister Sirius Black. Mister Potter’s favorite meal is breakfast, and his favorite food item is the bacon which he prefers crunchy rather than chewy. Most mornings Ms. Marlene McKinnon joins Mister Potter on his right.”

Everyone’s jaws hung open at this in shock. While Zolbry stood there proud of himself.

“Could you show us where Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Rupert Wilkes, and Evan Rosier sit by chance?” James asked the house elf.

“Anything for mister Potter, sir.” Zolbry nodded his head as he made his way over to the duplicate Slytherin table. He pointed to Lucius Malfoy and Rabastan Lestrange’s spots. James then distracted the house-elf as they walked over to where Rupert Wilkes sat. Each of the other boys took turns at each stop casting the mood ring charm on the pumpkin juice goblets while James kept Zolbry’s attention. When all was done, the boys thanked the house-elf before taking off and heading to the great hall for the show.

Each boy took their usual seats waiting for the rest of the students to filter in for the day, mainly the Slytherins. All of them were so giddy for what was to come, to see their prank take off.

“Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you up so early, or so happy before, pretty boy. What’s got you all excited?” Marlene asked as she slid into the seat beside James.

“Oh, nothing,” Sirius replied coolly with a shrug.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“Oh, you’ll see something,” Remus muttered under his breath, not quite quiet enough for the others beside him to hear leaving Peter, James, and Sirius all struggling to hold in a chuckle.

“What did you four do?” she asked the boy bursting to the seams in curiosity.

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“Look, here comes Malfoy and Lestrange,” Peter pointed out to the other boys. They all turned and watched in anticipation as the Malfoy heir took his seat beside Rabastan and Narcissa, Sirius’ cousin. They watched as they dug into their breakfast and waiting for them to take a drink, or for the younger Slytherins to appear.

It wasn’t long until Rosier and the younger Lestrange brother sat down next to their fellow Slytherin first-years and began eating their breakfast as well. Sirius kept shifting his eyes between the fifth-years and first-years, waiting eagerly for someone to take a drink first. Wilkes showed only five minutes later, but unlike the others, who seemed to unknowingly avoid their goblets, he sat down and immediately drank from it. Remus turned around in his seat waiting to see the effects with the rest of his roommates.

It wasn’t long before Sirius heard a scream coming from his direction by one of the other Slytherins sitting beside Wilkes. Her left hand covered her mouth in shock, while the right was pointing an accusing finger at Wilkes face. Her face was full of shock, before amusement. People began laughing around the boy, leading him to panic.

“What? What is it?” he shouted frantically at the others beside him.

“It’s – it’s pink!” the boy across from him shouted in between laughing fits. Wilkes quickly lifted his spoon looking into the piece of silverware to see his reflection. Lo and behold, his face was bright pink, like one’s cheeks when blushing with embarrassment. He quickly stood up and ran out of the great hall, covering his face as best as he could. Sirius watched as both the fifth and first-years laughed at their friend before finally taking a drink from their pumpkin juice.

Sirius turned sitting backward at the great hall table, back leaning against it with his hand holding his goblet, sitting confidently as if his bench seat was a throne. He waited in anticipation for one of the boys to put together who was behind their colorful faces and look his way.

Although Rosier seemed to be the one to put two and two together first, taking note of who all had colorful faces, it was Lucius Malfoy who looked over in his direction. He was blue in the face with anger – literally. Sirius fought the overwhelming urge to laugh at how funny the big menacing fifth-year prefect looked right now as he casually lifted his goblet in the air a bit as if cheering to the boy and taking a drink while he smiled a wicked grin. He then turned back around to face the rest of his friends and enjoy the rest of his meal. Sirius dared to look up at James, before failing to hold in a chuckle when they made eye contact. Peter and Remus joined in laughing as well as Marlene soon enough. Before Sirius knew it, the whole hall had erupted in laughter and finger-pointing at the four boys who remained, well almost everyone. The only ones who weren’t were a few Slytherins, mainly the younger years as well as a few rare students from the other houses.

“You did not!” Marlene shouted at them laughing until her belly began to hurt.

“I’m sure I have no clue what you’re talking about, Marls,” James told her.

* * *

Remus was so proud of the prank they pulled off. As long as nobody else put together what happened, Remus was in the clear. Though, it seemed Lucius Malfoy had. Even though the whole hall was laughing, Remus watched as the Malfoy heir with blondish-white hair collected himself, straightening his tie, holding his head high, as he gracefully sat down in his seat once more like it was nothing, even though his face clearly said otherwise. Malfoy’s face wasn’t what worried him though, but what he overheard did.

“That _manky_ _git_. I’m. Going. To. Kill. Him. I don’t care if he’s your cousin. I don’t care if he’s to be the heir. _He’s dead_.” He told the girl across from him with blonde hair. She looked unaffected by the boy’s statement, by the situation in general even. Stoic and uncompromising. Even though she lacked the typical black curly hair the rest of her family possessed, it was obvious to Remus even without Malfoy mentioning it himself: she was a Black.

Remus tried his best to take part in his friends’ celebrating, but the thought of Malfoy killing Sirius over a prank, one Remus helped mastermind, had a way of twisting his insides and making him want to vomit. The next time Sirius was alone, the boy was bound to strike back at him. Hell, as long as no authority figure was present, he’d probably attack Sirius. Sure, he wasn’t awful close to the boy, but he didn’t want Malfoy out for blood – Sirius’ blood. He didn’t deserve it. Sirius didn’t do anything wrong. Right?

* * *

It didn’t take too long before the Slytherin boys’ egos were all bruised enough to visit Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing for help.

‘Must have been tired of looking like different colored smarties,’ Remus laughed to himself.

It wasn’t until the four of them all pulled off the prank before Remus was haunted by the thought of what would happen once they had been caught. Pranking the boys was a lot of fun for Remus and he got swept away in the idea of it, but once it hit him what would happen when he was caught, it hit him like a ton of bricks. It weighed him down and soon basking in the fun was over for him. The same could not be said for the other boys though. Sometimes it seemed as though Remus cared more for his safety than the boy himself.

Sirius, James, and Peter were all riding on a high for the rest of the week. Remus didn’t understand how the other boy could go about his day so unconcerned about Malfoy, but he did. He acted like it was nothing. Sure, he didn’t have Remus’ hearing, but Sirius was soaking in his victory in the great hall. He saw how aggravated Malfoy was with him as he flaunted his untampered goblet in the other boy’s face.

A week went by, and the boys were all left without getting punished. Remus didn’t understand how they didn’t get in trouble. The Slytherins all knew who was behind it, or at least one of them did, but nobody seemed to have spoken up about what occurred. But even if the Slytherins didn’t mention it, Remus knew the teachers couldn’t possibly be that oblivious to not know what had happened, right? There was no way at least Dumbledore hadn’t picked up on what happened, so why was Remus not in trouble? Why hadn’t they sent him home already?

After the week had gone by without any of them getting in trouble, James, Peter, and Sirius decided they had had too much fun to stop after one prank and began planning out their next one. Remus was determined to stay out of it this time though. Dumbledore probably just gave Remus a free pass on the situation and Remus wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

“Come on, Remus,” James nudged the boy in the shoulder one afternoon as they were walking back up to their dorms. “You had so much fun last time,”

Remus had opened his mouth to protest, but James just pointed a finger at him in return.

“Don’t bother arguing, we all saw the smile you were wearing.”

“Yea, come on. It was so much fun! You know you had a blast,” Peter chimed in.

“We’ll get in trouble,” Remus tried not only to remind James but himself as well.

“We didn’t last time,” Sirius tried convincing him as they approached the fat lady’s portrait.

“Mimblewimble,” Peter told her as the portrait opened up and they all filed in. They made their way through the common room and up the staircase towards the dorm rooms.

“You can’t possibly believe Dumbledore or any other professor for that matter doesn’t know what we did. We’re eleven. They’re not stupid.”

“Well at least help us brainstorm some ideas,” James asked Remus as he opened the door to their room while Sirius gave his best pleading puppy eyes in hopes to wear him down. Remus sighed as he sat down on his bed; they were just about to break him until another excuse came to mind for why he wouldn’t participate.

“I can’t. I have to study.”

“You’re no fun sometimes, Lupin,” James told him in mock disappointment.

“ _Actually_ , that works out just fine. You’re probably headed to the library then, which means we can at least all sit together. You study, while we research the perfect spells to get the job done, and when you finally break and decide to have some fun, you can join us,” Sirius told him with a smirk. _Damn him_.

“Fine. Sounds good with me.” Remus said as if he completely good with the idea – which he was not. But what was he going to do, Sirius cornered him? The only way he’d be able to win now if he studied the whole time. If that’s how Sirius wanted to play, then so be it. Remus grabbed his transfiguration textbook, as well as the subjects he needed to study, and walked up to the other boys.

“Ready?” Peter asked

“Yep,” Remus smiled back at the rest of his roommates as they headed back out to the library.

* * *

Sirius, James, and Peter tried their best to wear their roommate down. They were going to get him to enjoy himself and help them with the prank. Sirius almost thought he had the boy while he read for herbology, but then Remus dared to pull out the transfiguration textbook. _Damn him_. He was doing it on purpose. He knew how to properly hold his wand, and how to say the incantation, but instead, he chose to do it all wrong. He was playing him, just like Sirius was him. Both watched the other as discretely as possible waiting for the other to break. Sirius could hear his foot tapping underneath the table but put on his best poker face and tried to act like he didn’t mind because he didn’t. He doesn’t even like transfiguration, and he didn’t care that Remus was messing up on purpose. He didn’t care that he was only messing up to get at him. _He did care_ that it was working though.

“You good over there?” James asked him. Thank Salazar. Sirius snapped out of it and put his attention right back where it belonged – on the prank. Sirius, James, and Peter kept looking for the perfect solutions for their Slytherin problem, but alas, they found nothing, and it was almost curfew. Even worse was that Remus never gave in because he knew that the second, he did, they would have found the best spell in the history of spells.

Unfortunately, curfew began to near and they all had to call it a night. They began walking their way back to the common room together. James and Peter leading the way as Sirius hung back alongside Remus.

“I’m impressed. You managed to miss out on all the fun after all,” Sirius teased the gangly boy to his right.

“Well, I had to study,” Remus told him slyly.

“Yeah, looks like you could use it. Mean, what was with your form? And you kept messing up the incantation, even though I know you knew what it was,” Sirius began as the corners of Remus’ mouth began to turn up.

“What?” Sirius asked the boy as they made their way up another moving staircase and down another corridor.

“For someone who makes a big deal of showing how little they care about classes, you sure do seem to enjoy it is all.”

“I don’t like transfiguration,” Sirius told Remus, though it felt more like he was trying to convince himself instead as Remus gave him a look as to say ‘oh, sure you don’t’ while he nodded his head pretending to agree.

“I don’t.” he insisted as he told Remus once more.

“Whatever you say. And for the record, it looked like you were more annoyed while planning your spectacular prank rather than having fun.”

“ _fine_ ,” Sirius exhaled as his shoulders dropped in defeat. “You win. How is it that you won? You were _studying_.”

“And I got a lot done too, unlike one of us,” Remus smiled teasing Sirius back as he rubbed his victory in the black-haired boy’s face. Sirius rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but smile at his roommate.

He was going to drive him crazy. There was so much to the boy, that he hardly expected. Like him, he knew how to back a person into a corner with just words. Like him, he knew how to play. Like him, Remus knew how to hide behind a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think there is an official "mood ring spell," so I kind of just made one up. Looking back, since it was put on the goblets, it probably should have been a potion, but oh well. I might edit that later, but I needed to get this chapter posted. Hope it wasn't bad, felt this chapter could have been a lot better though, so sorry. Also, happy St. Patrick's Day!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Marauders: What Could Have Been](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29688309) by [lexyvey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexyvey/pseuds/lexyvey)




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